This report attempts to harness what has been learned from research to address core issues that are common to all systems for covering the low-income population, regardless of their particulars. It is hoped that bringing evidence to bear will highlight important policy concerns and provide an empirical basis for developing public policy and devising sound approaches to covering low-income Americans.

No Shelter from the Storm: America’s Uninsured Children by Campaign for Children's Healthcare

This report takes a closer look at uninsured children—who they are and what kinds of services they miss out on as a result of being uninsured. It is based on data projections from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey (CPS) conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau (2004-2006), as well as the 2005 National Health Interview Survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Health Care for All by Center for Policy Alternatives

Over 45 million Americans lack health insurance and about 30 million more are underinsured. The increasing financial instability of the managed care industry and the rising cost of premiums and prescriptions has cast doubt on whether any American’s health care is secure. Despite the nation’s massive healthcare spending, millions are uninsured or underinsured. Nationwide, average health insurance premiums for workers increased nearly three times faster than their average earnings between 2000 and 2004. Medical bills are now the primary cause of half of all personal bankruptcies.

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Job Training/Workforce Development

Strengthening State Financial Aid Policies for Low-Income Working Adults

This Working Poor Families Project (WPFP) policy brief examines how states can strengthen their financial aid policies to better serve working adults seeking postsecondary education and training. 

Improving Work Supports: Closing the financial gap for low-wage workers and their families

This paper by Nancy Cauthen of the Economic Policy Institute, begins by describing why work support programs are needed. It then goes on to explain the state of current U.S. programs and why we need to reform them. The final sections of the paper describe some concrete policy proposals for reform and offer recommendations about priorities and next steps.

Bridges to Careers for Low-Skilled Adults: A Program Development Guide

This 125-page guide provides concrete guidance on how to develop and implement "bridge programs," which help adult students improve their basic skills and succeed in college. The guide contains information and interactive worksheets that program developers and managers can use to help with program design, curriculum development, funding, implementation, and evaluation.

Reality Check: Promoting Self-Sufficiency in the Workforce System

This report by Wider Opportunities for Women, provides examples of practices that have defined and implemented the concept of self-sufficiency to further the goal of creating an economically sound and thriving community through a well-functioning workforce system.

The Workforce Investment Act and Self-Sufficiency

This report by Wider Opportunities for Women, focuses on how the federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) replaced the Job Training Partnership Act as the federal
government’s primary workforce development program. WIA-funded programs serve both unemployed job seekers and employed adults seeking different or better employment.

Strengthening State Policies to Increase the Education and Skills of Low-Wage Workers by the Working Poor Families Project Some states have developed policies and programs to help businesses raise the skill levels of workers. This report will briefly describe those initiatives and offer recommendations for strengthening state training policies.

Wising Up: How Government Can Partner with Business to Increase Skills and Advance Low-Wage Workers by The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)

States can influence the quality of local jobs by targeting economic and workforce development efforts toward businesses providing “good jobs.” This report examines one promising approach: state and local partnerships with business and industry to train low-wage workers and help them advance.

Katrina Recovery

K-12 Public Education Reform in New Orleans

This report, by the Initiative For Regional And Community Transformation, examines K-12 public schools in New Orleans, pre and post Katrina, and provides special reccomendations for education reform.

Transforming an American Region: Recommendations for Rebuilding the U.S. Gulf Coast after the Storms

This report, by the Initiative For Regional And Community Transformation, presents a distilled set of challenges and opportunities for philanthropy to consider in the rebuilding effort of the Gulf Coast. The report focuses on three major areas of need and grant making for philanthropic organizations and other groups to consider in rebuilding and transforming the region: (1) leadership development, (2) community and economic development, and (3) the support and development of philanthropy.

Voices from the Gulf Coast by United Way of America

Envisioning a Better Mississippi: Hurricane Katrina and Mississippi - One Year Later by Mississippi NAACP

The Women of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast:
Multiple Disadvantages and Key Assets for Recoveryby Institute for Women's Policy Research

Part I. Poverty, Race, Gender and ClassPart II. Gender, Race, and Class in the Labor MarketWorkforce (Re)Development in the Gulf Coast Region: A Three-Part Agenda for Action by The Workforce Alliance

The Center for Law and Social Policy has posted a number of studies on these issue by its experts. Topics include workforce development, disconnected youth and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

The Center on Budget and Public Priorities has several working papers on post-Katrina issues, including Medicaid to survivors and unemployment benefits. The Center also has discussion papers on the effects of Katrina on the federal budget.

Low-Wage Work (general)

Paid maternity leave still on the wishlist for many U.S. mothers

In a selection of 19 countries with comparable per capita income, the United States provides the fewest maternity leave benefits in both length of leave and paid time off (see chart). This is considered separate from any disability insurance for which one may qualify. In fact, the United States falls two weeks short of the International Labor Organization's basic minimum standard of at least 14 weeks general leave. It is also the only country not to guarantee some amount of leave with income.

Working Poor Families Project: Securing State Commitments to Family Economic Prosperity

One in twelve working families lives below the official poverty line and millions more struggle to make ends meet. This policy brief by the Working Poor Families Project, examines recent state poverty initiatives and explores the tools and strategies states are pursuing to improve economic security, including establishing measurable targets for poverty reduction.

Low-Income Workers and Families Hardest Hit by Economic Decline Need Help Now

This new report by CLASP, outlines how low-income workers and families are hardest hit in times of economic downfall. The report examines the struggles facing low-income workers in hard economic times and explores options to help them.

Seizing the Moment: State Governments and the New Commitment to Reduce Poverty In America

In just the last two years, one of every five states has taken action to put poverty on the political agenda. This joint report from CLASP and Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, written by Jodie Levin-Epstein and Kristen Michelle Gorzelany, outlines those efforts and provides charts detailing action by policy area.

Pulling apart: A state-by-state analysis of income trends

The gap between the richest and poorest families, and between the richest and middle-income families, is growing at an accelerating rate in most states. Read the full report, Pulling Apart-A State-by-State Analysis of Income Trends, and fact sheets on every state co-published by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute.

Real wage reversal persists

A combination of slower wage growth and faster inflation has led to falling real hourly and weekly earnings for most workers, as EPI senior economist Jared Bernstein finds. Bernstein illustrates how this combination has led to a dramatic shift in the buying power of workers’ paychecks. “This helps to explain the primacy of economic concerns among voters in the presidential primaries,” said Bernstein.

Movin’ On Up: Reforming America’s Social Contract to Provide a Bridge to the Middle Class

This research brief summarizes recent findings by the Center for Economic and Policy Research on job quality and workers' economic security. The report concludes with proposals that would strengthen labor market institutions, expand work supports for families in the middle and working classes, and provide workers, particularly those in low- and moderate-wage jobs, with more opportunities to improve their skills and education throughout their lifetimes.

The Economic Costs of Poverty in the United States: Subsequent Effects of Children Growing Up Poor

Using evidence that children growing up in poverty are more likely to have low earnings as adults, more likely to engage in criminal activity, and have poor health, this report from the Center for American Progress makes the economic cost to society case for reducing childhood poverty.

Combating Poverty: Emerging Strategies from the Nation’s Cities

In response to discussions within the National League of Cities’ (NLC) Council on Youth,
Education, and Families during the spring and summer of 2007, NLC conducted a brief
survey of its 1,600 member cities to identify current city initiatives to combat poverty. This report details the cities' different strategies.

Women and Unemployment Insurance: Outdated Rules Deny Benefits That Workers Need and Have Earned

This fact sheet discusses three aspects of the Unemployment Insurance (UI) system that prevent many women from receiving UI benefits they have earned: monetary eligibility criteria, the exclusion of part-time workers, and allowable reasons for job loss.

Economic Snapshot: Long-term unemployment warrants action now and is projected to get worse

During the last recession, Congress took action to extend unemployment insurance (UI benefits beyond the 26-week mark in March 2002. During this time, 1.3 million workers had already exhausted their basic benefits. Today, with Congress is debating another UI extension, a new Economic Snapshot Economic Policy Institute, compares the number of long-term unemployed in March 2002 with the number today and the number projected by the end of 2008.

Employment-Based Tax Credits for Low-Skilled Workers

Families in low-income communities face three interrelated problems: unemployment rates are high, incarceration rates of low-skilled men are high, and a large fraction of children in low-income communities are being raised in single-parent households. To address these interrelated problems, this new report by the Brookings Institution proposes a two-part policy designed to increase the return to work.

Communicating About Poverty and Low-Wage Work: A New Agenda

This new report, commissioned by The Mobility Agenda, reviews research and survey work in the U.S. on how messages shape public perspectives and the political and communications challenges which prevents policy solutions that could address issues of poverty, inequality, and mobility.

Unions and Upward Mobility for Low-Wage Workers

This report, by John Schmitt, Margy Waller, Shawn Fremstad and Ben Zipperer, analyzes 15 of the lowest paying occupations in the United States and finds that unionized workers earn about 16% more than their non-unionized counterparts. Unionized workers in the same industries are also 25 percentage points more likely to have health insurance or a pension plan.

Social Inclusion for the United States

By Heather Boushey, Natalie Bronosky, Shawn Fremstad, Rachel Gragg, and Margy Waller

Place Matters, Employers, Low-Income Workers, and Regional Economic Development

Spatial factors and location are often missed, but critical, pieces of the puzzle in developing public and private policies that support working families. This paper summarizes factors determining locational decisions of businesses and workers, as well as local economic growth, and suggests how employer needs as well as opportunities for low income workers might be served by successful policies in the areas of housing, transportation, education and workforce development. There are notable differences in the patterns of work and employment within and across metro areas, implying that there is no single strategy or national blueprint that will work everywhere.

Low-Income Workers and Their Employers, Characteristics and Challenges

This paper, by the Urban Institute, finds that about one in four workers, ages 18 to 61, earned less than $7.73 an hour in 2003. Low-wage workers who reside in low-income families with children are substantially less educated than the average worker, are concentrated in industries with low wages, and have limited prospects for wage growth. Many policies aimed at low-wage workers are not well-targeted at workers in low-income families with children, in part because only one in four low-wage workers reside in such families. Nevertheless, policies targeted at low-wage workers may have broad benefits, including improving the lot of low-income families with children.

Opportunity at Work: Improving Job Quality

CLASP's Elizabeth Lower-Basch discusses the state of job quality today, argues that we as a society have choices to make about what kinds of jobs we want, and explores the range of steps that we can take to support good jobs.

Economic Snapshots: A Tale of Two Time Periods for Low-Income Families

Some analysts have hailed a recent Congressional Budget Office study which finds, among other things, that income grew 28% for low-income single mothers from 1991-2005. This Snapshot, by the Economic Policy Institute, shows those analysts ignore the outcomes of two distinct time periods with different tales to tell. Over the last several years, these families have seen a loss of real income, a loss which has not been offset by the social safety net.

Measuring Income and Poverty in the United States:

This fact sheet by the NCCP discusses how the U.S. government measures poverty, why the current measure is inadequate, and what alternative ways exist to measure economic hardship.

Economic Snapshots: New data reveal unprecedented income inequality by Economic Policy Institute (EPI)

Newly released data from two separate sources reveal just how skewed the distribution of economic growth has been over the current recovery. Data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis through the third quarter of 2006 show that a historically high share of corporate income is going into profits and interest (i.e., capital income) rather than employee compensation.

Working Hard, Falling Short by Working Poor Families Project

More than one out of four American working families now earn wages so low that they have difficulty surviving financially. And while our economy relies on the service jobs these low-paid workers fill – such as cashiers, janitors, security guards and home health aides – our society has not taken adequate steps to ensure that these workers can make ends meet and build a future for their families, no matter how determined they are to be self-sufficient.

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Marriage

Adapting Healthy Marriage Programs for Disadvantaged and Culturally Diverse Populations: What are the issues? by CLASP. Since 2002, more than 300 healthy marriage programs have been funded by the Administration for Children and Families. While many initial concerns about this initiative have been lessened, an important question remains: can the programs be effective with populations more diverse than the white, middle-class, educated, engaged/married couples they have mostly served? This brief describes the types of program adaptation already underway, identifying key issues and challenges.

Out of Order? Factors Influencing the Sequence of Marriage and Childbirth Among Disadvantaged Americans by CLASP. This brief explores the attitudinal, experiential, economic, and social contexts in which disadvantaged parents have children and decide to marry or not marry. It also discusses the public policy implications of research on this topic.

Building Bridges Between the Healthy Marriage, Responsible Fatherhood, and Domestic Violence Movements: Issues, Concerns, and Recommendations by CLASP. This brief explores how the healthy marriage, responsible fatherhood, and domestic violence communities can work together to promote the well-being of families and children. It explains some of the barriers to building bridges between the three communities, and it suggests issues around which cooperative work is possible.

Rethinking Welfare Rules From a Marriage-Plus Perspective by The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)

From this perspective, two goals should be paramount in designing public benefits programs: 1) the state should seek to develop rules that do not discourage marriage; and 2) these rules should not disadvantage children who live in singleparent families.

Minimum Wage/Living Wage

Self-Sufficiency Standard reports for 35 states, District of Columbia and New York City.

These reports by Wider Opportunities for Women show what hourly wage and monthly/yearly income are needed for families of different sizes to actually make ends meet.

Economic Snapshots: Minimum wage increasingly lags poverty line

This Economic Snapshot by The Economic Policy Institute examines how the minimum wage is at its lowest real value in over 50 years and has not been raised since 1997. As the basic income required to support a family has grown with inflation and the minimum wage has not kept pace with the rising costs of goods. As a result, federal inaction leaves minimum wage workers in an increasingly dire situation.

Making Sense of the Minimum Wage

This report by The Economic Poilicy Institute summarizes a report “Economic Effects of State Minimum Wage Increases,” The paper, by EPI economic analyst Liana Fox, examines the methods and findings of the major research that has been done on the effects of minimum wage raises.

The Economic Impact of Local Living Wages by The Economic Policy Institute

The astounding growth of the living wage movement has been a response to the predicament of Americans who work but are unable to make ends meet, as well as to the public policies contributing to the problem. Public policies have exacerbated the problem from the federal level to the local level. Despite having common goals, living wage laws vary considerably in practice.

Paid Sick Days

Trends in Work Supports for Low-Income Families with Children

This report, by the Urban Institute, demonstrates the effects of a slow economy and increased demand for public health insurance coverage that has changed the shape of spending on safety-net programs since 2002. Government spending on supports directly connected to parents' work status has declined or remained flat as the number of parents working has declined. Other supports available without regard to work status have increased as more families found themselves with incomes below the poverty level.

10 Things That Could Happen To You If You Didn't Have Paid Sick Days

Here’s a Tip: When Restaurant and Hotel Workers Don’t Have Paid Sick Days, It Hurts Us All by Jodie Levin-Epstein of CLASP. Restaurant and hotel workers are typically low-paid employees, and their employers rarely provide them with paid sick days. Instead, these workers are forced to make difficult choices when they or their family members are sick, including coming to work sick—which also presents a public health risk. This fact sheet details both the need for paid sick days for restaurant and hotel workers and some current efforts to ensure that workers have them.

Economic Snapshots-Access to Sick Days Vastly Unequal

This Economic Policy Institute Snapshot by economist Elise Gould, examines how sick days are distributed among workers at different income levels. Findings are those who are paid $7.38 or less per hour are also short-changed on sick leave, roughly one out of six low-wage workers can take paid time off when they get sick. The picture is very different at the top of the wage scale, where 79% of workers get paid sick leave.

Working Sick: Getting Stiffed:

This new report by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) exposes how some of America's biggest companies deny their employees paid sick days and jeopardize public health nationwide.

Women and Paid Sick Days: Crucial for Family Well-BeingThis new fact sheet released by the Institute for Women's Policy Research presents a number of alarming statistics about the lack of paid sick days offered to working women and how this affects the health and well being of the entire family.

First-ever hearing on the Healthy Families Act, Tuesday, February 13, 2007, held Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor (HELP) Committee. Read testamonies:

Debra L. Ness, President, National Partnership for Women & Families

Dr. Rajiv Bhatia, MD, MPH of the San Francisco Department of Health

Heidi I. Hartmann, PHD, of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research

Dr. Jody Heymann, MD, PHD of Harvard and McGill Universities.

Paid Sick Days Legislation: A Legislator's Guide by Jodie Levin-Epstein with Laura Boyd, a joint publication of CLASP and the Women Legislators' Lobby.

One Sick Child Away From Being Fired: When "Opting Out" Is Not an Option

This new report by the University of California, Hastings College of Law Center for WorkLife Law examines how the media protrays the work/family conflict as women "opting out" of fats track careers to stay at home. This study finds that the majority of working parents, noth mothers and fathers, wish they had more time to spend with their families. These findings indicate the real work/family debate should be about Americans parents dealing with inflexible jobs, lack of resources and a committment to do right by ther families.

No Time to Be Sick: Why Everyone Suffers When Workers Don't Have Paid Sick Leave

The Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) has compiled a report on American workers and paid sick leave. An astounding 59 million workers in America do not have one single day of paid sick leave and nearly 86 million do not have any paid sick leave to care for their children. Women and low-wage workers recieve less paid sick leave than any other demographic group. This report demostrates how paid sick leave is beneficial and nessasary for everyone, in the family, the community and the nation.

Poverty

Testimony on the Economic and Societal Costs of Poverty

On January 24th, 2007, Jane Knitzer, NCCP’s Director, testified before the House Committee on Ways and Means on the economic and societal costs of poverty. Read Ms. Knitzer describe the need to support working families with better benefits, Head Start and Pre-K education.

Poor Measurement: New Census Bureau Report on Measuring Poverty Raises ConcernsOn February 14, 2007 the Bureau of the Census released its latest report on alternative measures of poverty. Among social scientists, there is considerable dissatisfaction with the official approach to poverty measurement. This report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Economic Poicy Institute (EPI) is part of a welcome research initiative by Census analysts to improve the way that poverty in America is measured and understood.

Who Are America's Poor Children?

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina exposed glaring truths about poverty in America. Child poverty and material hardship are not just problems experienced by the states in Katrina's path—they are problems that plague Americans around the country. According to the 2004 U.S. Census, 37 million Americans live below the poverty line. In the wake of this national tragedy, poverty should once again become a topic of national concern. Now is the time to focus on how to make sure no more children are left behind. This series by The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) addresses the challenge.

State

Strengthening State Policies for Working Families

This report by the Working Poor Families Project discusses improving state policies to benefit working families with expanding education and training opportunities, focusing economic development to benefit low-income workers, improving the conditions of employment and strengthening preformance standards and accountability.

State Policy Assessment Reports

This interactive fact sheet by the Working Poor Families Project provides data on the conditions of low-income working families in each state. Click on any state on the interactive map for state-based information.

Child Care and Early Education State-by-State Data.

This set of state-by-state data includes analysis of 2005 child care spending from Child Care Development Block Grant and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds and of 2005 Head Start Program Information Report data, along with data on states’ use of community-based child care to provide pre-kindergarten. It also links to profiles of state infant and toddler initiatives highlighted in CLASP’s Starting Off Right report.

State-by-State Family Economic Security Profiles by The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP)

This document outlines why state policymakers need to pay more attention to low-wage work, its effects on families and children, and what it takes for low-wage workers to make their families economically secure. It also describes a set of State Family Economic Security Profiles that the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) designed to highlight policy options available to state policymakers, the choices each state has made, and how families are doing economically in all 50 states and the District of Columbia .

The Family Resource Simulator is an interactive, web-based tool created by the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP). It calculates family resources and expenses as earnings increase, taking public benefits into account. Simulators are available for AL, CT, DC, DE, GA, IL, MD, MA, NY, PA, and TX State-by-State WIA Program Participation Data—Program Year 2002 Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)

California: The Rising Tide Left Some Boats Behind: Boom, Bust and Beyond in the San Francisco Bay Area by The California Budget Project

Economics of Investing in Universal Preschool Education in California A new study by the RAND Corporation cites the benefits of quality early care and education programs. This is a significant new piece of economic research. Other similar studies have been published over the past two years and are available at www.earlycare.org/econdev.The Hidden Public Costs of Low-Wage Jobs in California UC Berkeley Labor Center for National Economic Development and Law Center (NEDLC)

The findings in this report provide direction for current policy discussions focused on supporting the working poor. First, the findings in this report dispel a widely held misperception that part-time work largely accounts for the low earnings of poor working families. Second, the simulations show that savings in public assistance payments would be in the billions of dollars if the current group of recipients earned at least $8.00 per hour (savings of $2.7 billion) or had affordable employer-provided health insurance (savings of $2.1 billion). Finally, the extremely large amount of public assistance payments that flow to workers is of a magnitude that can change economic incentives for the businesses in which they are employed.

Wider Opportunities for Women has just released the Self Sufficiency Standard for Wisconsin 2004. The standard enables community based organizations, workforce development entities, and training and education providers to help their clients set productive goals and take productive steps to stabilize themselves financially. The self sufficiency benchmark helps workforce boards set standards for eligibility that recognize the needs of the working poor, contract for appropriate services, benchmark performance, and ensure that scarce training dollars are spent to help low income workers move towards financial independence. To see recent coverage on this issue click here.

Treading Water in the New Economy: An Overview of Wisconsin's Low-Wage Working Families by Institute for Wisconsin's Future

Low-wage workers and their families are average Americans,working hard, earning too little to meet many basic needs and receiving very few benefits from either their employers or the state. Many are treading deep economic water and going nowhere.

Welfare/Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Changes 2006

This report by Wider Opportunities for Women, is a detailed summary of the 2006 changes to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and how these changes will affect America's low-income families.

Promoting Economic Self-Sufficiency as a State TANF Outcome by the Working Poor Families Project In this report, the WPFP encourages states to direct their TANF and other workforce development programs to achieve signifi cant employment and earnings outcomes for participants. In particular, the WPFP encourages the adoption of two primary objectives for state TANF programs: 1) establish economic selfsufficiency as a goal for TANF leavers; and 2) measure success toward this goal and related outcomes on a routine basis.

New Goals and Outcomes for Temporary Assistance: State Choices in the Decade after Enactment

This report from the Brookings Institution focuses on welfare reform, specifically a review of spending decisions nationwide and in three states—Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin under the Temporary Assistance program since its enactment in 1996.

The Urban Institute recently compiled a number of materials exploring the past and future of welfare reform:

Audio files:

• Welfare Reform Roundtable: Reviewing a Decade, Previewing the Future

Listen to government officials, human service practitioners, researchers, and analysts as they discuss and debate the past and future of welfare reform.

Fact Sheets and Reports:

• A Decade of Welfare Reform: Facts and Figures
  Government Work Supports and Low-Income Families: Facts and Figures
  The Changing Role of Welfare in the Lives of Low-Income Families with Children
  
• Getting On, Staying On, and Getting Off Welfare

Analysis of Fiscal Year 2005 TANF and MOE Spending by States
This analysis by Marcie Weadon-Moreno and Elizabeth Lower-Basch, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services demonstrates how the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the nation as a whole spent the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grants and state Maintenance of Effort (MOE) funds in fiscal year 2005. Columbia University's National Center for Children in Poverty has published reflections on the tenth anniversary of Welfare Reform. http://nccp.org/pub_lfb.html

Ohio: The Allocation of TANF and Child Care Funding in Ohio by The Brookings Institution

Pennsylvania: The Allocation of TANF and Child Care Funding in Pennsylvania by The Brookings Institution

South Carolina: The Working Poor of South Carolina: Poverty Despite Work by South Carolina Appleseed Justice Center

Wisconsin: The Allocation of TANF and Child Care Funding in Wisconsin by The Brookings Institution

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Women

New Directions in Workforce Development: Do They Lead to Gains for Women?

By New England Journal of Public Policy, Vol. 22, No. 1 and 2.

Voices and Choices for D.C. Women & Girls

This report by the D.C. Women's Agenda, a Washington-based advocacy and policy coalition, underlines the status of women and girls in the nations capital with recomendations for city leaders policy needs.

Stepping Stones 2006: Paving Women’s Pathways to Economic Security

The groundbreaking study’s principal conclusion was that low-income, women-headed families – that is, single mothers and their children – are by far the most economically vulnerable population in the region. The report by the Washington Area Women's Foundation identified four key areas for work to improve the lives of these women and their families, areas deemed critical to ending the persistent cycle of poverty.

A Portrait of Women and Girls in the Washington Metropolitan Area

Women make up half of the Washington metropolitan area population and
nearly half of our workforce. Women in the region lead the country in earnings and education; yet despite such progress, 30% of women-headed households and one in three children in the District of Columbia live in poverty. This report by the Washington Area Women's Foundation exposes the economic situation of women in the District with ideas to use for further action.

Single Mothers Continue to Face Tough Job Market This Economic Snapshot by the Economic Policy Institute examines how single mothers in the workforce face a tough job market even after a period of employment growth post-welfare reform.

Women's Work Supports, Job Retention, and Job Mobility: Child Care and Employer-Provided Health Insurance Help Women Stay on Jobs

This report by the Institute for Women's Policy Research examines the key factors
related to job retention and labor market advancement among
low-wage workers, especially women, to identify effective policy strategies for
improving their labor market outcomes.

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