Tens of Millions of Families with Low-Wage Workers Fall Into Gap Left by Employers and Government Nearly 41 million people in working families cannot afford basics like health care, housing, or child care, even with public work supports
For Immediate Release: October 10, 2007 Contact: Alan Barber, CEPR, 202-293-5380 x115 Washington, DC: Low wages, inadequate benefits, and limited work supports leave one-in-five people (nearly 41 million) in working families struggling to make ends meet. According to a study released today by the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC, and the Center for Social Policy at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. According to the report, many workers are in jobs that do not provide health insurance or enough earnings to cover basic expenditures but earn too much to qualify for work supports such as Medicaid and Food Stamps. While common to higher-wage workers, employment-based benefits, like health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off, are not available to most low- and many moderate-wage workers. Public work supports, however, can help fill in these gaps. "We no longer live in a world where having a job means you're automatically able to make ends meet," according to Heather Boushey, co-author of the report. "Our work support policies need to be updated to support the millions of families with earners in bad jobs." After examining federal and state policies across nine states and the District of Columbia, the researchers found that families who were able to take advantage of government-provided work supports were able to close nearly half (44 percent) of the gap between their earnings and a safe and decent standard of living. Across the same states, however, more than one-in-five of those living in low-income, but working families, were not eligible for any government-provided work supports. The findings come from an in-depth examination of eligibility for six work supports--child care assistance, Earned Income Tax Credit, Food Stamps, housing assistance (public housing and Section 8), Medicaid/State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families--and who uses them. The study analyzed federal and state policies in Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Washington, and the District of Columbia. A low-income family has income below a basic family budget, which is equal to the cost of purchasing a safe and decent standard of living at market prices within the family's locality. The family types included are households comprised of one or two adults and zero to three children under the age of 13. These family types make up approximately 75 percent of the US population. This new data is being released as Congress tries to expand SCHIP to families with income above 200% of the poverty threshold. The data released today show that the current eligibility rules leave over half of low-income families ineligible for this work support. "Smart public investments in working families, such as the NC General Assembly's recent establishment of an Earned Income Tax Credit and the NC Kids Care health insurance program pay dividends to individual families and the entire state," said John Quinterno, research associate at the North Carolina Budget & Tax Center, "The proliferation of low-wage jobs in North Carolina will increase the need for such effective measures." The study, Bridging the Gaps: A Picture of How Work Supports Work for Working Families, was co-authored by the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the Center for Social Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston in collaboration with partners in ten states. Bridging the Gaps (BTG) <http://www.bridgingthegaps.org> is a multi-state intensive research and outreach project intended to provide a full picture of public work supports in the United States. The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) <http://www.cepr.net> was established in 1999 to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives. The Center for Social Policy (CSP) <www.mccormack.umb.edu/csp/index.jsp> is an applied research and technical assistance center within the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The research was funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation <http://www.aecf.org>, the Ford Foundation <http://www.fordfound.org>, the McKnight Foundation <http://www.mcknight.org, the Meyer Foundation <http://www.meyerfoundation.org>, the Moriah Fund <http://www.moriahfund.org> and the Stoneman Family Foundation. ____________________________________ Center for Economic and Policy Research, 1611 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20009 Phone: (202) 293-5380, Fax: (202) 588-1356, Home: www.cepr.net _____________________________________ Subscribe: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/cepr/signUp.jsp?key=1013 Unsubscribe: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/cepr/unsubscribe.jsp Update Subscriptions: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/cepr/profile/login.jsp RSS: http://www.cepr.net/index2.php?option=com_rss&feed=RSS2.0&no_html=1 Liz Chimienti Domestic Policy Analyst Center for Economic and Policy Research 1611 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 400 Washington, DC 20009 Phone: (202) 293-5380 x110 Fax: (202) 588-1356
