An important part of our mission at the Center for Poverty
Research is to educate and inform the public and policy-makers
about critical facts and findings on poverty in the U.S.
Our recent conference on poverty and low-wage labor markets
provided broad context on low-wage work in the U.S. today and
highlighted a variety of new findings about how best to improve
conditions of low-wage workers. Please go to the links below to
listen to parts of the conference, and see our web page for many
more podcasts and videos. Thanks for supporting the Center
for Poverty Research and our programs.
National efforts to increase college attainment and to address
the nation’s skills gap have focused heavily on community
colleges. Understanding returns to community college programs is
particularly important for low-income students, since nearly half
of low-income students begin their college careers at community
colleges, compared to just 15 percent of high-income students.[1]
Using administrative data from California, we find that
students who earn vocational certificates and degrees see large
earnings gains that vary substantially by course of study.
Audio recordings from our Fall 2015 Conference,
“Employment, Earnings and Inequality: Realities and Opportunities
in Low Wage Labor Markets” are now available for download on our
website. This conference presented both quantitative and
qualitative research on questions related to low wage labor
markets, covering topics that include wage trends and shifts in
occupations, policies that enhance wages, issues related to
immigration, mobility, stigma and identity among low-skilled
workers.
In this video, economist Ann Huff Stevens discusses income
inequality and the lasting effects of poverty during childhood.
In the U.S., she says, part of the challenge is the sense of
shame associated with using public assistance programs. The
Earned Income Tax Credit is an effective anti-poverty program
that overcomes this stigma by rewarding work and transferring
income to needy families through the tax system.
