an Urban Institute project
Over 13 million American families with children have incomes under 200% of the federal poverty level. These families have difficulty making ends meet even if they work full-time. The Low-Income Working Families (LIWF) project tracks the well-being of low-income families over time and analyzes the risks these families face. Our researchers identify the factors that contribute to poor outcomes for these families and policy options that would reduce barriers and promote meaningful work for adults and positive outcomes for children.
The LIWF studies cover the experiences of low-income working families in their struggle for economic security; the components of a safety net that will support working families trying to provide adequately for their families and advance to higher paying jobs; better life chances for children; and the role of racial and ethnic disparities in economic outcomes.
The Low-Income Working Families project builds on more than a decade of research under the Assessing the New Federalism project, which followed struggling families as many left welfare.
Featured Topics
TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) is due for reauthorization by the end of 2010. Urban Institute experts examine the effectiveness of TANF and provide evidence for future policy decisions.
"Measuring Poverty at the State Level" implements the modern poverty measure for Minnesota using the American Community Survey (ACS) and simulates the potential effects of alternative safety net policies on poverty, including near-cash benefits, taxes and nondiscretionary expenses. The results show the importance of the modern poverty measure for analyzing state policies and also highlight the numerous decisions and imputations required to implement the new measure.
Highlighted Research from the Low-Income Working Families Project
Economic Security
The paper, "Partnering with Employers to Promote Job Advancement for Low-Skill Individuals," explores the reasons why employer partnerships are important for improving economic outcomes for both low-skill workers and businesses. It identifies the factors that have hindered the growth of these partnerships as well as promising approaches—incumbent worker training and sectoral training—to build partnerships, and concludes with a discussion of policy considerations for creating and sustaining partnerships.
Savings can help low-income households cope with income instability and unexpected expenses, according to new evidence presented in "Can Savings Help Overcome Income Instability?" For households with nonelderly heads in the lowest income quintile, modest holdings of liquid assets can significantly reduce the probability of hardships with health care, housing payments, food security, utility and phone bills, and basic consumption. Programs to promote saving can help low-income households protect themselves from economic shocks.
Safety Net
In 2006, New York became the first state to enact a new earned income tax credit for low-income parents who pay their child support in full. The credit is designed to keep parents from falling too deeply into poverty if they pay their child support in full and to encourage low-income noncustodial parents to work and pay their child support. During its first year, only 5,280 noncustodial parents received the tax credit, costing just over $2 million. The report, "Initial Results from the New York Noncustodial Parent EITC," identifies three reasons the take-up rate was so low and offers recommendations on how to increase participation in the future.
"Green jobs" have garnered attention and support from many circles. This brief, "Low-Skill Workers' Access to Quality Green Jobs," discusses strategies for improving access to green jobs for low-skill individuals, particularly jobs that can improve workers' economic standing and better support families.
Life Chances for Children
Living in concentrated poverty stifles the life chances of adults and children. Efforts to transform neighborhoods of extreme poverty into places of opportunity must grapple with concentrated disadvantages including distressed housing, failing schools, joblessness, poor health, and violence. The brief, "How to Evaluate Choice and Promise Neighborhoods," provides a framework for designing evaluations of two federal initiatives seeking to address neighborhood deficiencies simultaneously, the Department of Education's Promise Neighborhoods effort and the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Choice Neighborhoods program.
The U.S. child poverty rate has fluctuated between 15 and 23 percent for the past four decades, but far more children—37 percent—live in poverty at some point during their childhoods. Being poor at birth strongly predicts future poverty status. Using the PSID, the paper, "Childhood Poverty Persistence: Facts and Consequences," finds that 49 percent of children who are poor at birth go on to spend at least half their childhoods living in poverty.
Racial and Ethnic Disparities
The brief, "Health Insurance in Nonstandard Jobs and Small Firms: Differences for Parents by Race and Ethnicity," provides new insights about health insurance coverage gaps among racial and ethnic minority groups, focusing on parents with employment in small firms or nonstandard employment. Compared with white parents, a disproportionate share of Latino and black parents have nonstandard employment, and Latino parents are more likely to have employment in small firms. These work arrangements increase the risk of being uninsured since they are less likely to come with an offer of health insurance compared to regular large firm employment.
More highlighted research
Ongoing Research
A New Safety Net for Low-Income Families: Work Supports and Advancement
America’s low-income working families are struggling to get by, too often forced to make impossible choices among food, housing, health care, and child care. Government safety nets were reformed in the mid-1990s with the promise that work would pay. But that promise remains unfulfilled for many families. These essays explore the challenges these vulnerable households face and suggest ways to protect them and help them thrive—urgent goals with far-reaching benefits for children, families, and the nation's economic future. Ongoing work examines programs for work supports and advancement to better jobs.
Related Publications
Latest Research
