Profit at the Bottom of the Ladder: Creating Value by Investing in Your Workforce

For too long, many corporate officers, boards of directors, and Wall Street analysts have taken it as axiomatic that higher compensation and benefits for 'elite' workers would make companies more productive and profitable-but that providing additional compensation and benefits for those at the other end of the economic ladder would be a waste of money. This book repeatedly turns that argument on its head, providing example after example of creative reengineering of work and benefit relationships, incentives, and job design that have made workers better off and-as a direct result-raised company profits at the same time. The book is nothing short of inspirational.”Herman B. Dutch” Leonard, Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration, and Faculty Co-Chair, Social Enterprise Initiative, Harvard Business SchoolA must-read: Jody Heymann has hammered the last nail into the coffin of the economics of the low road. With her crack research team, Heymann uses a wide array of business case studies to prove that becoming an employer of choice for the traditionally lowest paid can be the best route to high profitability and resilience for the world's most successful companies.”Juliet Schor, author of Plenitude: The New Economics of True WealthHere's a crazy idea for improving our economy: let's encourage companies to offer incentives, training, flexibility, opportunities for engagement, and profit-sharing to workers in the bottom of the earnings ladder as well as to those at the top. Pie in the sky? This book shows that it is both practical and profitable. The stories Heymann tells of company after company that raised productivity and profits by giving incentives and opportunity to all is a clarion call for moving beyond the Wall Street version of capitalism.”Richard Freeman, Herbert Ascherman Professor of Economics, Harvard UniversityHeymann's comprehensive look at the provocative issues surrounding the status and stability of lower wage workers is certain to add to the national debate. Documenting how supporting these workers improves business' bottom line, this book is a remarkable breakthrough!”Donna Klein, President, Corporate Voices for Working Familiesrigorously researched book” - USA Todaypresents a well-documented lineup of businesses that have flourished in large part because their management practices include respecting and empowering their lowest-paid worker.” - USA Today