Economic power is having the work, wealth, and well-being needed to build agency and shape one’s future.
Economic power becomes possible when people have dignified work, sound financial tools, and quality of life that supports both today’s needs and tomorrow’s goals.
Economic Power Spectrum
from Redefine Alliance
Economic power — measured through the lens of work, wealth, and well‑being — is not a single milestone but a spectrum that individuals move through from inclusion to stability and autonomy.
01
Exclusion
What drives this stage?
WORK
No or exploitative work
WEALTH
No or predatory financial access
WELL-BEING
Unmet basic needs, unsafe conditions
02
Inclusion
What drives this stage?
WORK
Basic, dignified work access
WEALTH
Basic benefits and financial tools
WELL-BEING
Basic needs met, but fragile
03
Stability
What drives this stage?
WORK
More dignified, stable work
WEALTH
Savings, buffers, and debt control
WELL-BEING
Consistent needs met, some variability
04
Autonomy
What drives this stage?
WORK
Dignified work with fair pay, benefits, and voice
WEALTH
Wealth-building and long-term security
WELL-BEING
High-quality, stable living conditions
Stages 
Exclusion
Inclusion
Stability
Autonomy
Drivers 
Work
No or exploitative work
Basic, dignified work access
More dignified, stable work
Dignified work with fair pay, benefits, and voice
Wealth
No or predatory financial access
Basic benefits and financial tools
Savings, buffers, and debt control
Wealth-building and long-term security
Well-Being
Unmet basic needs, unsafe conditions
Basic needs met, but fragile
Consistent needs met, some variability
High-quality, stable living conditions
Economic power can feel far away for so many people facing the toughest barriers to employment: navigating homelessness, reentry post incarceration, recovery, or domestic violence. For these folks, a lack of investment — not a lack of talent — keeps economic mobility out of reach. Employment social enterprises (ESEs) help address these barriers by offering dignified work and wraparound support to talent often overlooked.
This hub helps employers, funders, and advocates align on a shared framework to support and expand economic power.
Get Started
Quick Start
Short, impactful primers to get oriented.
Economic Power in 90 Seconds
A quick video that breaks down what economic power means and how it redefines what’s possible.
Why Economic Power, Why This Hub?
Who Drives Economic Power?
Deep Dive
Stories, insights, and tools for deeper learning and action.
Resources for Leaders, Funders & Partners
Experience the economic power spectrum through real stories
Why focus on economic power?
Economic power goes beyond good jobs and steady pay. Economic power is the freedom to build the life you want.
Traditional measures of success
- Placement rates
- Retention
- Wage growth
Economic Power Spectrum
Exclusion
Inclusion
Stability
Autonomy
These stages are driven by
Work
Dignified work provides predictable, family-sustaining income with safety, benefits, and opportunities for skill-building and advancement.
Wealth
Sound financial resources include access to banking, savings, credit, and the knowledge to build and protect wealth against shocks.
Well-Being
A quality standard of living means stable access to food, water, housing, transportation, healthcare, and social services that reduce stress and expand options.
After decades of working alongside employment social enterprises (ESEs), we are redefining success around a deeper aspiration: helping individuals build economic power — not just employment. Traditional workforce metrics (placement rates, retention, wage growth) don’t fully capture whether someone can build a life with agency and choice. Can they choose where they want to raise their family? Can they pivot and start a new career path? Can they start laying the financial foundation for the life they’ve always dreamed — for themselves and their family?
This hub introduces Redefine Alliance’s Economic Power Framework: a clear way to understand how people move from economic inclusion, to stability, to full autonomy. Scroll on to find stories that illustrate this spectrum of economic power, practical tools to strengthen your approach as an inclusive employer, and resources to guide funders and public-sector partners in investing in what works.
Who Drives Economic Power?
It takes an ecosystem to build economic power.
The Economic Power Ecosystem
Economic power is not something individuals can achieve on their own. It requires aligned action across individuals, organizations, systems, and investments.
Economic Power in Practice
Follow Anthony’s Journey
Anthony
Economic power builds over time — through steady work, stronger finances, and a better quality of life. Employers like ESEs help create that momentum by opening pathways to quality jobs.
Anthony represents millions of people navigating similar steps toward inclusion, stability, and autonomy — where everyday decisions at work, at home, and in the systems around them shape whether progress continues or stalls.
Economic power Spectrum
Exclusion
Inclusion
Stability
Autonomy
Drivers of Economic Power
His journey shows how access to
Work
Dignified work provides predictable, family-sustaining income with safety, benefits, and opportunities for skill-building and advancement.
Wealth
Sound financial resources include access to banking, savings, credit, and the knowledge to build and protect wealth against shocks.
Well-Being
A quality standard of living means stable access to food, water, housing, transportation, healthcare, and social services that reduce stress and expand options.
combine to unlock real economic power — and how ESEs, employers, funders, and policy partners can help make it possible.
Economic
Exclusion
•
Inclusion
Stability
Autonomy
These stages are driven by
Work
Dignified work provides predictable, family-sustaining income with safety, benefits, and opportunities for skill-building and advancement.
Wealth
Sound financial resources include access to banking, savings, credit, and the knowledge to build and protect wealth against shocks.
Well-Being
A quality standard of living means stable access to food, water, housing, transportation, healthcare, and social services that reduce stress and expand options.
Barriers compound: Anthony’s story starts here
Anthony is a determined young father — resourceful, protective, and committed to building a better life for his child. He’s moving between shelters while trying to keep his family safe. After leaving school early and navigating a past incarceration, he’s trying to re-enter a system that doesn’t feel built for him. With a criminal record and no diploma, work experience, or networks, even entry-level roles feel out of reach. Each “no” reinforces how far he is from a real opportunity.
With no safety net, small disruptions push him backwards. This is the instability ESEs are built to interrupt.
What opens the door
Even though the cards are stacked against him, Anthony still has motivation, goals, and resilience. A neighbor tells him about a local business, an employment social enterprise, hiring for a solar installer — a role that offers paid hours for training that can lead to real skills, and support beyond the job description.
What ESEs do:
- Provide steady first-chance jobs that offer paid training and skill building with fair wages
- Offer career coaching and connection to safety nets (transportation, food support, housing emergency resources)
- Facilitate trauma-informed training
- Foster a community that sees people for they have, not the barriers they face
Economic
Inclusion
Exclusion
•
Stability
Autonomy
These stages are driven by
Work
Dignified work provides predictable, family-sustaining income with safety, benefits, and opportunities for skill-building and advancement.
Wealth
Sound financial resources include access to banking, savings, credit, and the knowledge to build and protect wealth against shocks.
Well-Being
A quality standard of living means stable access to food, water, housing, transportation, healthcare, and social services that reduce stress and expand options.
A first foothold
Anthony begins working right away, earning a fair wage, gaining hands-on training in solar installation. He is able to keep showing up, learn new skills, and start building trust because ESEs like his employer create early stability by pairing paid training with predictable schedules. This job is different. Instead of screening him out for his gaps, his employer’s support team helps him clear them — connecting him to stable housing, affordable childcare, and a path to get his record expunged.
Early Momentum
His ESE employer helps him navigate these early challenges by offering financial coaching for benefits navigation and budgeting, and helping with barriers (such as transportation, predictable schedules, and childcare). This helps Anthony ease the uncertainty that comes with early progress.
In these early moments, ESEs offer more than a job. They create an on-ramp where potential is protected and economic power can grow.
Inclusion is good for everyone
When ESEs invest in people at the inclusion stage, the returns ripple far beyond the individual:
- A strong return on every dollar: For each dollar spent by an ESE, society gains $2.23 in benefit — a 123% return on investment
- Impact compounds at scale: Even at a conservative estimate, ESEs generate $1.13 of societal benefit per dollar spent — a 13% ROI that grows as models strengthen
- The business case is clear: Investing in people facing barriers is one of the highest-return investments in the workforce ecosystem
Economic
Stability
Exclusion
Inclusion
•
Autonomy
These stages are driven by
Work
Dignified work provides predictable, family-sustaining income with safety, benefits, and opportunities for skill-building and advancement.
Wealth
Sound financial resources include access to banking, savings, credit, and the knowledge to build and protect wealth against shocks.
Well-Being
A quality standard of living means stable access to food, water, housing, transportation, healthcare, and social services that reduce stress and expand options.
Stability takes root
While some people start here, Anthony has worked his way here. With the help of the solar installation ESE, his salary has increased and he has saved enough to build his first emergency fund, find reliable housing, and even purchase a car to get him to his job. ESE career coaching and financial planning help turn early progress into a lasting foundation. The stability he’s acquired gave him the confidence to take the next step in his career.
Momentum compounds, but progress is fragile
Anthony has stable work, benefits, and a reliable schedule. He’s grown his income, built savings, and has his own lease. He can plan beyond the next month. With steadier footing, he begins to imagine life beyond survival, to focus on his child’s education and growth. This is where economic power builds confidence.
Yet stability remains fragile. Without support systems that grow with him, the path forward stalls.
The benefits-cliff dilemma
Even with a steady job, Anthony’s budget is tight. He relies on food stamps as well as subsidized housing and childcare — government support he could lose with even a small raise.
Each opportunity must be weighed. Anthony may still have to move defensively. He asks: “Can I weather the gap between what I’ll gain and what I’ll lose?” “What happens if I miss a shift?”
ESEs hold the doors open while Anthony soars
At this stage, ESEs sustain advancement by helping Anthony find better paying jobs. ESEs and other employers that center inclusivity offer wrap-around support like:
- Continued skill-building and career coaching
- Financial planning and ongoing benefits navigation
- Building credit, growing savings, resolving debt
- Pathways toward industry-recognized roles
But they don’t do it alone
ESEs often work with partners to help workers move on and move up. Here’s how:
- Wraparound Supports: ESEs connect workers with a variety of safety net services that sustain stability through disruption
- Talent Pipelines: ESEs partner with local employers to connect their talent to more competitive employment
- Certification Pathways: ESEs partner with colleges, trade schools, and apprenticeship programs to build stackable credentials for higher-paying roles
Economic
Autonomy
Exclusion
Inclusion
Stability
•
These stages are driven by
Work
Dignified work provides predictable, family-sustaining income with safety, benefits, and opportunities for skill-building and advancement.
Wealth
Sound financial resources include access to banking, savings, credit, and the knowledge to build and protect wealth against shocks.
Well-Being
A quality standard of living means stable access to food, water, housing, transportation, healthcare, and social services that reduce stress and expand options.
A career, not just a job
Anthony has advanced into a senior role at a new organization, earning a family-sustaining wage, benefits, and new opportunities. With steady footing, he no longer plans for the short term or relies on his former employer’s support. He knows his worth — and so does his new employer. His confidence shifts from “I’m lucky to have this job” to “I’m lucky to do what I’m good at and love.” The ESE was the launchpad that made it possible.
The Ripple Effect
With stability in place, Anthony looks beyond himself. He plans for his daughter’s future — savings, school opportunities, and the kind of community he wants to raise her in. He has time to pursue his own goals and give back, from volunteering locally to working toward long-term financial milestones.
What sustains autonomy
Economic power grows when an individual’s sense of agency is buoyed by the right systems. Anthony’s determination was the fuel, and that fuel was catalyzed by the structured support, community, and pathways found in his ESE. There, he not only built the skills needed to advance in his career, but he also grew the confidence and the resilience to know he has what it takes to move forward.
Impact that lasts a lifetime
ESEs don’t just change jobs — they change trajectories. Even after workers graduate from ESE programming, the foundation they’ve built continues to shape what’s possible.
- Wages that keep growing: Earnings continue to climb for ~7 years after leaving an ESE
- Real income mobility: Workers typically move from the 25th to the 45th–50th income percentile in just three years
- Independence from government support: Total monthly income rose 91% while reliance on government funds fell 46 percentage points
Anthony is just one of 10M people who are ready to build economic power but face barriers that keep that power out of reach.
Building economic power for everyone is a collective effort. It gains traction when we build the systems, change the narratives, and adopt the practices that unlock opportunity for talent that is so often overlooked. Let’s redefine what’s possible, together.
Exclusion
Inclusion
Stability
Autonomy
Where do you fit in this movement?
I work at or lead an employment social enterprise or other inclusive employer
I’m a funder, policymaker, public-sector rep, or am interested in helping my community build economic power
Resources for employment social enterprises
Economic power is built when the conditions are right for people to move from inclusion to stability and autonomy. When economic power compounds for one person, its ripple effects expand to strengthen families, revitalize communities and expand possibilities for generations to come. Employment social enterprises (ESEs) are an essential building block in this process, creating the pathways that can turn individual progress into shared prosperity.
Strengthen your organization’s impact. Explore tools and quick actions to help your business build job quality and expand economic power.
Tools & Quick Actions
Economic Power Field Guide
Use the toolkit to build your fluency with economic power, and share your insights as a practitioner!
Job Quality Assessment
Use our Quality Jobs Assessment tool to explore ways to strengthen job quality at your enterprise.
Learn new metrics
Explore our recent training on how to identify alternative metrics to better track employees’ economic power.
Stay connected
Join our mailing list to stay up to date with all our economic power research.
Resources for funders and public sector & policy partners
Employment social enterprises (ESEs) are human-centered businesses that hire talented people overcoming high barriers to employment — serving as a critical first step on the path to lasting economic mobility. To create an economy that works for everyone, funders, policymakers, and public sector leaders can help turn individual progress into lasting change by supporting ESEs, advancing quality jobs, and investing in their local inclusive employment ecosystem.
Explore tools and quick actions to advance quality jobs and expand the reach of ESEs.
Tools & Quick Actions
Explore our ecosystems
Learn more about the ecosystems we’re cultivating to build economic power through partnerships in Los Angeles, Illinois, and Appalachia.
Indiana policy example
Read how Indiana has advanced ESEs through state law and what this work can teach policymakers across the country.
3 core Lessons for policymakers
Explore our interview with America Forward for three core lessons on advancing ESE policy.
Policy Agenda
Review our policy agendas to learn more about our current priorities and advocacy approach.
Illinois House Bill Fact Sheet
Download an introduction to the IL House bill currently on the governor’s desk.
More from Redefine Alliance
on Economic Power
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Economic Power hub
