CLASP

Sapna Mehta wrote an op-ed about the impact a lack of paid medical leave has on women and families.

The 2023 Omnibus Appropriations bill offers an important opportunity to advance economic opportunity and strengthen social, gender, and racial justice. Yes, the bill includes some heartbreaks—most particularly by failing to address key immigration issues and neglecting to expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC), which demonstrably…

Misclassification of workers as independent contractors is costly to workers, the government, and responsible employers who correctly classify their workforce.

Providing Income to Unemployed Workers  Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance—enacted by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act—helped people unable to work due to the pandemic. This included self-employed workers, those seeking part-time employment, or people who otherwise wouldn’t qualify for regular unemployment benefits.…

Expanding the Child Tax Credit  In 2021, the Child Tax Credit (CTC) lifted 1 million children under 6 and nearly 2 million children between 6 and 17 out of poverty, when using the Supplemental Poverty Measure. The expanded CTC, which disproportionately benefitted Black and Hispanic…

Despite a new legislative agenda when the 118th Congress is sworn in, there’s still time for the current Congress to act on a range of issues important to economic equity and opportunity.

Paid leave isn’t only a women’s issue—just ask a rail worker. Congress must guarantee paid sick leave to all workers.

"According to our research partners at the Center for Law and Social Policy, the number of employers charged with unfair labor practices rose 16 percent in 2022; one out of every five employers is charged with illegally firing workers during a union drive."

In this letter to the editor, Indivar Dutta-Gupta urges Congress to "to invest in child-care and home care to transform care jobs into family-sustaining jobs, while establishing a national paid-leave program to help more working people care for their loved ones."

Thanks to powerful federal investments in programs that support people seeking economic security, the child poverty rate in 2021 as measured by the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) dropped by nearly half, from 9.7 percent in 2020 to 5.2 percent in 2021, the lowest level measured.