This research investigates the impact of three equal cost
alternative labor market policies on the economic well-being of
low-income families and society in general at the turn of the 21st
century. The principal focus is on how changes in the minimum wage,
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and payroll taxes influence the
well-being of low-income American families. The methods we employ
also reveal how much of the benefits from raising the minimum wage,
increasing the EITC, and reducing payroll taxes of workers in
low-income families accrue to families in the middle and upper
ranges of the income distribution. Thus, we consider the entire
distribution, but focus primary attention on families and persons
at or near the bottom of the income distribution.
The research reported in this book has three distinguishing
features. First, it examines and compares changes in the minimum
wage, the EITC, and payroll taxes using a common analytical
framework. There is considerable discussion of the impacts of
raising the minimum wage and increasing EITC payments. The research
reported here places these two policies in an "equivalent social
cost" framework and analyzes the distributional consequences of
each policy. In addition, we use the same equivalent cost paradigm
to investigate an alternative policy that rebates a portion of the
payroll taxes paid by workers in low-income families. A second
distinguishing feature of the research is that it incorporates
important insights from the poverty and income distribution
literature into the analysis of labor market policies and family
well-being. This literature suggests that any evaluation of success
or failure of poverty fighting policies thatincrease the minimum
wage, expand the EITC, or reduce payroll taxes requires that the
poor population be properly identified and poverty measured using
distribution sensitive measures of poverty and not simple
headcounts of the poor. Further, it is important to check for the
sensitivity of any conclusions about the policy choices to
alternative poverty lines. A third distinguishing feature of the
research is that we use important developments in the applied
welfare economics of income distribution to address the key
question: which policy alternative is best?
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