When workers who claim the Earned Income Tax Credit are audited, they’re less likely to claim the credit, a powerful anti-poverty tool, in the following years.
Kalena Thomhave
Kalena Thomhave is a freelance journalist and researcher based in Pittsburgh. She is a former Prospect writing fellow.
Posted inEconomic Policy
A Tough Week for the Social Safety Net
States from Tennessee to Wisconsin are mirroring the Trump administration’s enthusiasm for eviscerating anti-poverty programs.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Tennessee Republicans Experience Cognitive Dissonance on Poverty
Tennessee has increased welfare benefits for the first time in 22 years, while also proposing to kick people off medical and food assistance.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Welfare Drug Testing Promotes Stereotypes, Not Efficiency
Despite a clear lack of evidence of significant drug use among welfare recipients, lawmakers in at least two states are moving forward with plans to require drug screening for individuals seeking assistance. State legislators in Illinois and Iowa have introduced bills that would make drug testing a prerequisite for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), […]
Posted inEducation in America
Striking a Match
The walkout wildfire is spreading from West Virginia to Kentucky to Oklahoma to Arizona, as teachers demand investment in education—not more tax breaks for the rich.
Posted inEconomic Policy
A Failed Fight for $8.50 Energizes the Fight for $15 in Louisiana
When a bill to raise the Louisiana minimum wage by just $1.25 failed, advocates didn’t reduce their demands—in fact, they did the opposite. On Tuesday, the Louisiana Senate voted against a bill that would have raised Louisiana’s minimum wage to $8.50 an hour by 2020. “Not advancing this legislation is a step backwards for our […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
Food Stamps Aren’t a Substitute for Work. They’re How Low-Wage Workers Avoid Hunger.
Most adults on SNAP are workers, but they turn to the program when they’re between jobs or making too little.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Tipped Workers Claim Victory Against “Tip-Stealing” Rule
Outraged workers protested the Department of Labor’s proposed rule—and lawmakers responded in the omnibus spending bill.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Is It Race or Class? To the Trump Administration, It Doesn’t Matter
A new study on upward mobility points to racial disparities across generations—but efforts that could work to reduce these disparities are not a priority of the GOP administration.
Posted inEducation in America
West Virginia Teachers Win—Will the Legislature Try to Undercut Their Victory?
West Virginia’s teachers won a 5 percent pay raise for all state employees. But it was the legislature’s corporate tax cuts that underfunded the teachers in the first place—and it may slash public services to pay for the raise.