Issues: Work and Income Security

Financial Incentives

MDRC has conducted many studies of antipoverty strategies that use economic incentives to improve the financial security of low-income people, encourage employment, and break generational cycles of poverty and dependence.

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Brief

Supporting Adult Learners Through the SUCCESS Program

The SUCCESS project aims to improve college completion rates for traditionally underserved students at community and broad-access colleges. This brief highlights the experiences of students 25 years or older in four SUCCESS colleges. The findings suggest how programmatic and institutional structures may promote or hamper student success for this population.

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Commentary

States Offer Supplemental Wages to Retain Childcare Workers

In this commentary originally published in Route Fifty, JoAnn Hsueh, Cynthia Miller, and Michelle Maier discuss how states are supplementing the wages of childcare workers to retain them during widespread staffing shortages. Ensuring eligible workers enroll to receive the benefit can be challenging, but research suggests three strategies to help.

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Key Documents

Report

Helping Public Housing Residents Find and Keep Jobs

A Guide for Practitioners Based on the Jobs-Plus Demonstration

This guide contains practical advice on implementing a program model — known as the Jobs-Plus Community Initiative for Public Housing Families (Jobs-Plus) — aimed at helping public housing residents find and keep jobs.

Providing Earnings Supplements to Encourage and Sustain Employment

Lessons from Research and Practice

This 12-page practitioner brief offers lessons for policy and practice from MDRC-conducted random assignment studies of five programs that provided earnings supplements to low-income parents to encourage employment and increase the payoff of low-wage work.

Effects of a Modified Conditional Cash Transfer Program in Two American Cities

Findings from Family Rewards 2.0

A program in Memphis and the Bronx offered cash incentives, coupled with family guidance, to poor families for meeting certain health care, education, and work milestones. The program increased income and reduced poverty, increased dental visits and health status, reduced employment somewhat, and had few effects on students’ education.

Income Share Agreements and Related Programs to Finance College or Career Training Focus Area: Financial Aid Student Services Financial Incentives Job Retention and Advancement Population: Young Adults Intervention: Sectoral Training, Student Services, Tutoring, Mentoring, Career & Technical Education, Counseling/Advising, Financial Incentives, Job Training	Returning Citizens Stimulus Study Focus Area: Corrections and Reentry Financial Incentives Population: Populations with Barriers to Employment Populations with Low Incomes	Scaling Up College Completion Efforts for Student Success (SUCCESS) Focus Area: Financial Aid Student Services Financial Incentives Population: Young Adults Intervention: Student Services, Counseling/Advising, Financial Incentives, Financial Aid Locations: California, Indiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio
Grameen America Evaluation Focus Area: Work Support and Asset Building Financial Incentives Population: Populations with Low Incomes Populations with Barriers to Employment Intervention: Asset Building, Financial Incentives Locations: New Jersey	Family Rewards 2.0 Focus Area: Financial Incentives Two-Generation Programs High School Elementary and Middle School Population: Populations with Low Incomes Children and Schools Families Intervention: Financial Incentives Locations: New York, Tennessee	MyGoals for Employment Success Focus Area: Housing/Community Initiatives Financial Incentives Work Support and Asset Building Population: Populations with Low Incomes Intervention: Financial Incentives, Employment Services Locations: Maryland, Texas
The Encouraging Additional Summer Enrollment (EASE) Project Focus Area: Financial Aid Financial Incentives Population: Young Adults Intervention: Behavioral Interventions, Financial Incentives, Financial Aid Locations: Ohio	SaveUSA Focus Area: Work Support and Asset Building Financial Incentives Population: Populations with Low Incomes Intervention: Asset Building, Financial Incentives Locations: New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Texas	Opportunity NYC Demonstrations Focus Area: Financial Incentives Two-Generation Programs High School Elementary and Middle School Population: Populations with Low Incomes Children and Schools Families Intervention: Financial Incentives Locations: New York
Mayor’s Fund & Center for Economic Opportunity Social Innovation Fund Project Focus Area: Work Support and Asset Building Financial Incentives Young People Who Leave High School Before Graduation Housing/Community Initiatives Population: Populations with Low Incomes Young Adults Intervention: Sectoral Training, Reemployment Programs, Asset Building, Financial Incentives, GED Completion, Job Training, Employment Services Locations: Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas	Opening Doors Focus Area: Financial Aid Student Services Developmental Education Instruction and Curricula Financial Incentives Population: Young Adults Intervention: Student Services, Tutoring, Learning Communities, Counseling/Advising, Financial Incentives, Financial Aid, Curricular/Instructional Reforms, Developmental Education Locations: California, Louisiana, New York, Ohio

Work Rewards Focus Area: Work Support and Asset Building Financial Incentives Housing/Community Initiatives Population: Populations with Low Incomes Intervention: Financial Incentives, Employment Services Locations: New York	The “Make Work Pay” Experiments Focus Area: Financial Incentives Welfare Reform Population: Populations with Low Incomes Intervention: Financial Incentives Locations: Canada, Connecticut, Minnesota, Wisconsin	Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration Focus Area: Financial Aid Financial Incentives Population: Young Adults Intervention: Student Services, Tutoring, Counseling/Advising, Financial Incentives, Financial Aid, Developmental Education Locations: Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana, New Mexico, New York, Ohio
Minnesota Family Investment Program Focus Area: Financial Incentives Welfare Reform Population: Populations with Barriers to Employment Intervention: Case Management, Benefits Planning, Financial Incentives, Employment Services Locations: Minnesota	The UK Employment Retention and Advancement Project Focus Area: Job Retention and Advancement Financial Incentives Population: Populations with Low Incomes Families Intervention: Reemployment Programs, Welfare-to-Work, Financial Incentives, Job Training, Employment Services Locations: United Kingdom

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