State can ease the burden for the working poor

A new study by the United Way finds that 43 percent of all households in the Capital Region are either living in poverty or under significant financial constraint. This means nearly half of area residents are one car repair, illness or rent hike away from a financial crisis.

This is the case for working families all over the country. According to research by “Evicted” author Matthew Desmond, low wages without benefits keep many workers — notwithstanding their diligence or dedication — from ever moving from poverty into economic security. Further, most poor working people are not teenagers, he found, but adults and, often, parents. New York is no exception. Sixty-five percent of children in poor families have at least one parent who is employed at least part-time.

Among the many obstacles standing between New York working families and economic security is the high cost of quality child care. New York ranks among the most expensive states for child care. The average cost for full-time center-based care for an infant is $15,000 a year — far out of reach for a single parent earning the minimum wage, about $24,960 annually.

The bottom line: For low-wage working parents, earnings alone cannot pull their families out of poverty, particularly if they have to pay for child care. The math simply does not work.

Approximately 80 percent of low-income New York families who could benefit from assistance with child care do not get it, due to inadequate state and federal investment. This leaves many facing impossible choices. Do they cut their work hours, leading them to fall deeper into poverty? Do they patch together child care with well-meaning but untrained relatives or neighbors?

Another way New York can help make low-income workers’ paychecks stretch further is by expanding and strengthening working family tax credits, beginning with the state’s Empire State Child Credit. Inexplicably, this credit — designed to offset the high cost of raising a child — does not cover children under age 4, precisely when children are most apt to live in poverty, and most vulnerable to its devastating effects. And the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit should be improved to include young childless adults, ages 18-25, exactly when they are struggling to gain their footing in the workforce and build a nest egg for a future family.

This November, let’s elect leaders who will put family economic security and well-being at the top of their agendas so that once again, hard work will lead to economic security — for all New Yorkers.

Dede Hill is the policy director at the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy.