Fifty years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the War on Poverty. Since then, the federal tax code has been a fundamental tool in providing financial assistance to poor working families. Even today, however, thirty-two million children live in families that cannot support basic living...

Every day in its annual spinning rotation around the sun the Earth moves from darkness into light. During these 24 hours more than 1,700 American babies are born into poverty. One newborn is delivered into poverty every single minute of every single day in America. About 900 of these beautiful...

Immigrants toil in sweatshops for torturously long days at sub-minimum wages, which may or may not be paid, with little meaningful recourse. Immigrant workers with and without authorization to work in the United States are disproportionately represented among the lowest earners. The average wage...

The Brookings Institute and the Progressive Policy Institute have collaborated in a study analyzing the shift of earned income tax credit (EITC) benefits away from the working poor, their families and neighborhoods. The study determined that approximately $1.75 billion of the $30 billion in 1999...

Few economic indicators have more salience and pervasive financial impact on everyday lives in the United States than poverty measures. Nevertheless, policymakers, researchers, advocates, and legislators generally do not understand the details of poverty measure mechanics. These detailed...

While the aggregate tax system is mildly progressive, state and local tax systems are notably regressive. The lowest 95 percent of all income earners pay on average a higher percent of their income in state and local taxes than their share of aggregate income. By comparison, the top 5 percent of...

Despite this phenomenal success and the Biden administration’s strong support, a divided Congress narrowly failed to extend these enhancements to 2022. The adverse impact was immediate. The January 2022 monthly child poverty rate increased by more than 40 percent to 17 percent in January 2022,...