Questions We’re Asking
Question

Can a more generous Earned Income Tax Credit for single adults help more working people escape poverty?

Why are we asking?
Over the past several decades, wages have not increased by much for the average worker and have actually fallen for those without a college degree. A typical worker with a high school diploma, for example, earns less today than he or she did 30 years ago. One policy that has helped to offset this fall in wages is the Earned Income Tax Credit, but the credit provides very little to workers without dependent children.

Working Toward a Solution

Issue Focus

A Bipartisan Way to Make Work Pay for Low-Wage Workers

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) promotes work and raises over six million Americans out of poverty each year. Early results from an ongoing demonstration suggest that expanding the EITC for singles, an idea with bipartisan support, is feasible and can increase employment and income while reducing poverty.

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Video

Paycheck Plus: Making Work Pay for Low-Income Workers

This eight-minute video profiles the lives of six New Yorkers who are participating in the Paycheck Plus demonstration and evaluation of an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income single workers without dependent children.

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Issue Focus

Paycheck Plus: Making Work Pay for Low-Income Single Adults

This two-page issue focus uses infographics to explain a groundbreaking demonstration project that tests the impact of a new work-based earnings supplement, similar to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), on economic and social outcomes for single adults.

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