Making Work Supports Work: Tools for Policy Analysis

The National Center for Children in Poverty’s (NCCP) Making Work Supports Work project is designed to identify and promote policies that make work pay for low-wage workers and their families. Millions of parents work full-time, year-round and yet struggle to provide even minimum daily necessities for their families. Government “work supports” – such as earned income tax credits, child care subsidies, health insurance, food stamps, and housing assistance – can help. These benefits encourage, support, and reward work, helping families close the gap between low wages and the cost of basic needs. To assess the effectiveness of existing state and federal work support policies, we examine how much families need to make ends meet and how public benefits impact family budgets. We then work with state partners to identify, model, and promote alternative policies that better support low-wage workers and their families. Our work draws on results from two web-based tools: the Family Resource Simulator and the Basic Needs Budget Calculator