Only 37 percent of adults in low-income working families had employer-sponsored health insurance and 42 percent had no coverage. Health care costs are also rapidly rising out of reach for even middle-income Americans. In this summary, Perry and Blumberg propose comprehensive reform that ensures coverage for everyone at every income level, while still encouraging work. Their proposals include state purchasing pools, individual mandates and strategies for reducing health care costs.

One-third of America's families with children are low income, meaning their incomes fall below twice the federal poverty level. Although four in five of these families work, many don't bring home enough to cover the everyday costs of living. In this essay, Acs and Turner outline their proposals to enhance low-income families' purchasing power and reduce unusually high housing costs through a package of reforms and policy initiatives that tackle both the income side and expenditure side of family budgets.

This paper is a response to New Safety Net Paper 2, "Making Work Pay II: Comprehensive Health Insurance for Low-Income Working Families," by Cynthia D. Perry and Linda J. Blumberg.

Low-wage adult workers have trouble getting and keeping higher-paying jobs. Most lack the basic skills and education needed to move up, but certain kinds of assistance might give some the edge they need to break the pattern. In this summary, Holzer and Martinson recommend competitive federal matching block grants that reward states for developing new advancement systems which are linked to state workforce development structures. They would also require partnerships with employers and training providers, including community colleges.

This paper is a response to New Safety Net Paper 2, "Making Work Pay II: Comprehensive Health Insurance for Low-Income Working Families," by Cynthia D. Perry and Linda J. Blumberg.

Low-wage jobs are often characterized by uncertainty and unpredictable gaps in employment. A majority of workers in these jobs do not have access to the temporary income of unemployment insurance to tide them over when they suffer a job loss. This summary outlines recommendations for updating the program by extending benefits to more workers through changes in eligibility rules and establishing more uniform periods of benefit receipt.

Parents in low-wage jobs lack both the time and resources needed to fill their dual roles of worker and parent. In this summary, the authors outline a “family security” approach that would help parents fulfill their roles effectively. They suggest policies for enabling parents to improve prospects for their children and combine work with child rearing. Among the recommendations are flexible and paid leave policies for working parents, guaranteed child care, and expansion of the Early Head program.

This paper is a response to New Safety Net Paper 4, "Helping Poor Working Parents Get Ahead: Federal Funds for New State Strategies and Systems" by Harry J. Holzer and Karin Martinson.

This paper is a response to New Safety Net Paper 5, "Supporting Work for Low-Income People with Significant Challenges" by Pamela Loprest and Karin Martinson.

This paper is a response to New Safety Net Paper 5, "Supporting Work for Low-Income People with Significant Challenges" by Pamela Loprest and Karin Martinson.