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A Local Ladder for Low-Income Workers: Recent Trends in the Earned Income Tax Credit |
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The first half of this decade brought with it a range of economic challenges, including increased unemployment, stagnant family incomes, and rising poverty. As a tax credit and wage supplement for low-income workers, the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) played a critical role over this time period in providing resources to low-income families to make work pay and to help them make ends meet. Research has shown the EITC to be an effective poverty alleviation tool that can help low-income families to offset short-term difficulties due to job or income loss or more generally as they work to meet financial obligations. It also acts as a substantial economic stimulus for the communities in which these low-income working families live, particularly in those that This study updates previous analyses by examining the magnitude and spatial distribution of the EITC in tax year 2004 (the most recent tax year for which data are available), and trends from 2000 forward.
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