EMPLOYMENT

For those able to work, securing a good job can be a pathway out of poverty. Public policy can create guaranteed jobs, as well as help ensure access to good wages, education, training, safe working conditions, paid sick and family leave, income supports if injured, ill, or unemployed, and more. At the Center on Poverty and Social Policy, we pay particular attention to how public policy intersects with employment and poverty. We research the anti-poverty potential of policies like the minimum wage, jobs guarantees, subsidized employment programs, unemployment benefits, and employment-related supports. We also analyze the impact of conditioning individual and family access to basic needs and social supports such as healthcare, nutrition assistance, housing, and cash assistance, on employment, which can sometimes serve to reduce access to those who need it most. Our work examines the impact of employment-related policy at the federal and state levels, as well for workers and their families in New York City.