Publication
- November 30, 2016
- COWS
- Laura Dresser, Hannah Halbert, and Stephen Herzenberg.
Implementation of the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act (WIOA) is well underway. This process creates unprecedented opportunity to adopt policies and practices that boost job quality. Connecting workers with the best quality job possible serves job seekers better. More stable work means higher income, longer job tenure, and better predictability for managing the tensions between work and life. But beyond that, WIOA policies for job quality help protect public investments in training by ensuring that those investments are not simply lost in a revolving door of turnover. Policies that focus on better quality jobs help make WIOA resources a reward for employers who are already treating their workers with greater care, rather than subsidizing low-road competitors who may waste the investment. A new report produced by COWS, the Keystone Research Center in Pennsylvania, and Policy Matters Ohio, identifies three WIOA quality standards that can target public training investment where it will have stronger returns.
Working full time, year round is not enough to guarantee a middle-class standard of living. Nearly one in five working Iowa families, in fact, does not earn enough to meet basic needs. There are a number of things that could be done to help such families move into the middle class. Policies are needed to improve both the demand-side and the supply-side of the labor market. On the demand side, we need more middle-class jobs with decent wages and benefits. On the supply side, we need more workers with the education and skills needed to qualify for most good-paying jobs.
What we focus on here, however, is a set of policies called work supports that help low-wage working families survive and keep their children out of poverty, and that provide a stepping stone to a better education and a better job. We lay out a set of policies to strengthen these pathways to the middle class:
• Reform Iowa’s Child Care Assistance program to eliminate a huge disincentive called the cliff and to make it more effective as a help to parents trying to improve their skills and raise their wage level.
• Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit to provide even stronger support to low-wage workers, encourage more work effort, and keep children out of poverty.
• Expand the Child and Dependent Care Credit to cushion the loss of Child Care Assistance.
These reforms should be combined with education policies that ensure future generations of Iowans receive a quality and affordable education, from preschool through post-secondary institutions. This will require expansion of the universal preschool program, support of K-12 education through adequate funding of state foundation aid, and continued efforts to make post-secondary education more affordable by restraining tuition growth.
- November 1, 2016
- Staff Report
A healthy Kansas economy starts with healthy Kansans. Our state enjoys many advantages when it comes to health – open space, clean air and water, and a good sense of community.
Despite these amenities, however, Kansas finds itself in the middle of the pack when examining the health, economic, and social foundation of the state in comparison to other states in the region. A stable economic underpinning works to promote the health and well-being of all Kansans. In other words, a Kansan’s health involves much more than just healthy living and good choices – a range of factors make an impact. These factors (also known as the social determinants of health) comprise approximately 90% of what determines the health of the state’s population
To determine how Kansas ranks relative to its regional counterparts, the Kansas Center for Economic Growth (KCEG) collected and analyzed a total of 39 indicators divided among the four key areas in the model above. Overall, Kansas ranks right in the middle of the pack when compared to the six other states in the region, which include Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.
While being ‘right in the middle’ may not sound so bad, this ranking doesn’t take into account how recent policy choices may impact Kansas’ performance for years to come. Whether it’s unsustainable state tax policy that limits investments in public education or a refusal to expand KanCare to help improve the physical and mental health of Kansans, state policy choices will reverberate through the state for some time.
Though the Health and Prosperity Index (HAPI) is a new endeavor, KCEG will track these indicators over time to determine the impact of current policy choices on future outcomes. For now, the Kansas API results focus on short-term indicators available today.
As many cities across the nation experience population decline and an increase in vacant and distressed property, there is a need for economic and housing revitalization. New research from Welcoming Economies Global Network and Fiscal Policy Institute indicates that immigrants represent some of the brightest potential for revitalizing urban communities. However, experience suggests, that immigrants are often overlooked and underestimated by homeownership, community development, and affordable housing advocates, practitioners, and programs.
This report, which includes an interactive tool, show that immigrants have strong rates of potential home ownership in 23 target cities, and suggest that efforts that encourage homeownership and/or vacant property purchase could yield significant returns by targeting immigrant groups.
Cities included in the study are: Akron, Baltimore, Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Des Moines, Detroit, Indianapolis, Lafayette (IN), Manchester, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Rochester, St. Louis, St. Paul, Syracuse, Toledo, Utica, and York (PA).
The interactive tool can be accessed here.