How Work Supports Affect Family Income

Record numbers of low-income Americans have moved from welfare to work in recent years, but they and millions of others who labor in low-wage jobs do not earn enough to lift their families out of poverty on the strength of their earnings alone. As this graph shows, state and federal programs that support work, such as food stamps, earned income tax credits, and child care subsidies, can make a crucial difference to a family’s well-being. Instead of struggling at or below the federal poverty line, a hypothetical family of three that is headed by a single working parent and receives the major work supports for which they are eligible can boost their household income to a level that provides a bridge to self-sufficiency.

To learn more about what states and localities are doing to increase work support take-up rates, see Building Bridges to Self-Sufficiency: Improving Services for Low-Income Working Families. The product of a collaboration between MDRC and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, this report describes how public agencies, nonprofit groups, and employers are forming partnerships to foster job retention, promote career and wage advancement, and help lift use of work support programs by aligning eligibility requirements, streamlining application and recertification procedures, and launching outreach campaigns to improve awareness among targeted populations. MDRC will continue to test the principles, practices, and policies described in this report to develop one promising service delivery model through partnerships with One-Stop Career Centers. We will share the findings from our evaluation of this endeavor, called the National Work Advancement and Support Center Demonstration, in forthcoming publications.

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