Getting Connected: Employer Engagement in Work Supports

Publication Date: May 2006

Publisher: Center for Law and Social Policy

Author(s): Abbey Frank; Mark Greenberg; Robert Zdenek

Research Area: Labor; Social conditions

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

More than one quarter of U.S. working families have incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty line. Work supports—government benefits ranging from the Earned Income Tax Credit and child care assistance to Medicaid, the state Children’s Health Insurance Program, and food stamps—can help low-income families make ends meet and maintain employment. But many employers are unaware of or reluctant to help connect workers to these supports. This policy paper looks at the role employers can play in connecting employees to supports, employers’ concerns about this role, and observations from six sites with workplace-based efforts underway to improve access to work supports.