How can people reduce poverty in America?

Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour and indexing it to inflation—as President Barack Obama and several members of Congress have called for—would lift more than 4 million Americans out of poverty. Nearly one in five children would see their parent get a raise. read more

Proven programs like high-quality early care and education and the Nurse-Family Partnership can help buffer the effects of poverty. But if we really want to improve life prospects for poor kids we need to reduce the number of poor kids. read more

About twenty years ago I read an article in the Economist about a British think-tank that had come to America to study poverty. They concluded that, in America, an individual's chances of escaping poverty were virtually guaranteed if they'd do three things: complete high school; have no children out-of-wedlock; not fall into the welfare-trap, work at *something* no matter how little it paid in the beginning. read more

One of our nation’s most effective anti-poverty tools, the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC, helped more than 6.5 million Americans—including 3.3 million children—avoid poverty in 2012. It’s also an investment that pays long-term dividends. read more