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

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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.

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  • Lisa Barrow & Bea Rivera & Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, 2024. "Work, Poverty, and Social Benefits Over the Past Three Decades," Working Papers 24-22, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
  • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedcwq:98950
    DOI: 10.26509/frbc-wp-202422
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    employment; labor supply; low-income workers; social benefits; maternal employment; Earned Income Tax Credit;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

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