Work, Poverty, and Social Benefits Over the Past Three Decades

Lisa Barrow, Bea Rivera and Diane Schanzenbach

No 24-22, Working Papers from Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

Abstract: Understanding the evolving interactions between employment, social benefits, and families' well-being is key to designing better policies to both protect families and foster economic growth. Employment both overall and among those living in low-income families has been on a downward trajectory across the last three decades. One notable exception is that low-income women with children were increasingly likely to work between 1992 and 1999 in the aftermath of large changes to social safety net programs to provide more incentives and rewards for work. Since then, low-income women with children have been more likely to be employed than childless women. Over time, payments from social benefits programs have made up a larger share of income among low-income families with children and relatively higher earnings. Among low-income families without children, social benefits have not changed much over time.

Keywords: employment; labor supply; low-income workers; social benefits; maternal employment; Earned Income Tax Credit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H31 I38 J2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38
Date: 2024-10-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma and nep-pbe
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Journal Article: Work, Poverty, and Social Benefits over the Past Three Decades (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedcwq:98950

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DOI: 10.26509/frbc-wp-202422

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