Here's how to boost employment for people facing tough times
by Julie Kerksick and Kali Grant | Sep 22, 2021 | Blog, COVID-19, Op-Ed
Eighteen months after the largest job losses in U.S. history, unemployment is still high as workers, particularly Black and Hispanic workers, continue to struggle. While some indicators suggest the economy continues to recover, that recovery is uneven and fragile. America urgently needs a solution that supports workers, employers and communities alike, without leaving anyone behind. One proven and adaptable strategy that policymakers at all levels of government can mobilize now is subsidized employment.
Ensuring Economic Security & Opportunity in Our Lifetime: America's Pandemic Relief Response & the Path Forward
by Indi Dutta-Gupta | Sep 22, 2021 | COVID-19, Testimony
In 2020, federal policymakers took extraordinary measures to help millions of families avoid poverty and material hardship during the COVID-19 crisis. These temporary federal relief efforts—especially those boosting household incomes and ensuring people's access to essential services—"played a central role in stabilizing our families and our nation's economy, while pushing back on deep racial and gender inequity," according to GCPI Co-Executive Director Indi Dutta-Gupta's testimony before the United States House of Representatives Select Subcommittee Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis. Dutta-Gupta also argued that continuing to provide needed support to families would address pre-existing inequities and the weaknesses of social protection programs. Policies in "Build Back Better" proposals—with some crucial additions—would provide transformational investments to protect families and our economy against future threats, meet our national caregiving and job needs, and reduce poverty, hardship, and inequality for generations to come.
Lessons From New Hope: Updating the Social Contract for Working Families
by Kali Grant, Julie Kerksick and Natalia Cooper | Aug 24, 2021 | Brief, COVID-19
The COVID-19 public health and economic crisis made employment more scarce and exacerbated long-standing challenges—like access to quality child care—for millions of workers, particularly workers who are Black and Brown. This brief, published in partnership with Community Advocates Public Policy Institute, shares the success story of Milwaukee's New Hope Project—a program with a package of work-based supports that included subsidized jobs, earnings supplements, affordable health care, and child care. New Hope provides a blueprint for creating holistic, work-based approaches that significantly improve employment and family outcomes for participants and their communities, during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Building the Caring Economy: Workforce Investments to Expand Access to Affordable, High-Quality Early & Long-Term Care
by Isabella Camacho-Craft and Sophie Khan | Aug 5, 2021 | Brief, COVID-19
High-quality caregiving, including child care and long-term services and supports, is essential but out of reach for too many families. At the same time, care workers—who are disproportionately women of color—face poor job quality, low pay, and inadequate benefits, which undermines access to quality care. This brief offers recommendations for caregiving investments that promote the well-being of children, older adults, people with disabilities, and their families by creating and sustaining good jobs in the caregiving sector.
Opinion: It's time to make these expanded tax credits permanent
by Senator Sherrod Brown and Peter Edelman | Jul 14, 2021 | Blog, COVID-19, Op-Ed
If you have kids, check your bank account on Thursday. There's a pretty good chance you'll see $250 or $300 in your account with the letters "CTC" in the line item.If you have kids, check your bank account on Thursday. There's a pretty good chance you'll see $250 or $300 in your account with the letters "CTC" in the line item. That's because for the first time ever, we are recognizing raising kids as essential work with a bigger Child Tax Credit (CTC) for more families, and the option to get your tax credit as a monthly check or direct deposit.
Biden can deliver historic economic progress if he stands firm on raising corporate taxes
by Indi Dutta-Gupta | Apr 15, 2021 | Blog, COVID-19, Op-Ed
Biden's plan would rein in corporate power and profit and launch a new era in which the wealthy finance large-scale investment for the public good.