Research from the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan provides information on the low-wage workforce in the United States. Due to recent immigration, the typical low-wage worker is now most likely to be a Hispanic immigrant. Data also shows that the wage gap between white and Hispanic workers has increased dramatically over the last 20 years. Authors provide policy implications and recommendations based on this new data.

This study, from the Brookings Institution, utilizes data from the IRS Stakeholder, Partnerships, Education, and Communications (SPEC) division regarding EITC recipients in tax years 2000 and 2004. Researchers found that in 2004, one in six taxpayers received the EITC. The proportion of EITC recipients who filed their returns through volunteer tax sites was under 2 percent, with over 70 percent using paid preparers.

While the Earned Income Tax Credit has traditionally been viewed as an anti-poverty policy, Alan Berube, from the Brookings Institution, offers insight into how the EITC can have significant effects on local and regional economies. In San Antonio, it is estimated that each one dollar in EITC would generate a further 1.58 dollars in local economic activity. Similarly, a recent study in Baltimore found that EITC dollars generate close to 600,000 dollars in local income and property tax revenues.

In this policy brief from the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan, authors examine the relationship between education and health. The findings include evidence that better educated people have lower morbidity rates from the most common diseases in the United States. Authors conclude that education policy has the potential to improve the overall health in our country.

The National Resource Center for Foster Care and Permanency Planning authored this toolkit on kinship care as a strategy to promote permanency for children and families in the child welfare system. Kinship care has grown among families in the United States, and researchers have found that placements with relatives tend to last longer than non-relative placements.

Utilizing the National Center for Children in Poverty’s Family Resource Simulator, this article reviews policies in Illinois that support work and self-sufficiency among families. It was found that Illinois is successful in providing adequate family resources, but rewarding progress in the workforce is still a challenge. The Simulator showed that full-time, low-wage workers in Illinois cannot afford basic family necessities—including housing, food, health care, child care, and transportation—without the help of public work supports.

This fact sheet, from the National Quality Improvement Center on Non-Residential Fathers, provides information on the “What about the Dads?” study. This study included research on 1,958 children who were removed from the home where the father did not reside. By engaging the fathers of children in foster care, child and father relationships can be improved, and children can gain access to additional benefits.

This is a fact sheet on the Quality Improvement Center on Non-resident Fathers, which was designed to promote additional knowledge development regarding the engagement of non-resident fathers and their children who are involved in the child welfare system. The project will determine what impact non-residential father involvement has on child welfare outcomes.

This report is from the National Network to End Domestic Violence, and provides information on 1,243 local domestic violence programs operating in the United States collected in November 2006 as part of the first National Census of Domestic Violence Services (NCDVS). The Census collected information on adults and children receiving services from the local domestic violence programs during the 24-hour survey period.

This article from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities provides an overview of state income tax liability for low-income families. For the 2006 tax year, in 19 of the 42 states that levy income taxes, two-parent families of four with incomes below the federal poverty line are liable for income tax. The Center offers a variety of information on how income is taxed in different states around the country and what this means for low-income families.