This report, published jointly with the National Women’s Law Center, offers a new vision for a tax code that works for women, people of color, and low- and moderate-income families. Centuries of racist, sexist policy choices and discrimination have created significant barriers for women and people of color to build the kind of wealth our tax code now rewards. At the same time, insufficient tax revenues—exacerbated by tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations—constrain budgets for programs that help people afford their basic needs. The paper proposes a framework to help policymakers, advocates, and the public evaluate when and how refundable tax credits can advance equity, economic mobility, and opportunity for all.
Archive: Fact Sheet
The 2020 Census & the Environment: How Census Data Are Used for Environmental Justice & Climate Action
Census data are critical for advancing environmental justice and climate action. Researchers, advocates, and policymakers rely on accurate census data to identify the disparate impacts of the climate crisis, enforce an array of environmental protections, and ensure programs meet the needs (both short- and long-term) of diverse communities. This fact sheet is published jointly with WE ACT for Environmental Justice and the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation.
Why the Census Matters for Reproductive Health: Federal Funding for Reproductive Health Programs & Services
Census data guide more than $800 billion in federal funding—including funding for reproductive health. This fact sheet, published jointly with Planned Parenthood, explores some of the reproductive health programs and services that rely on a fair and accurate 2020 Census count.
Race & Origin Questions: A Guide to 2020 Census Operations
Accurate, detailed data on race and origin are necessary to enforce a broad array of civil rights protections, reveal disparate impacts of laws and policies, and ensure programs meet the needs of diverse communities. This fact sheet is a guide for responding to the 2020 Census race and origin questions.
Unworkable & Unwise: Conditioning Access to Programs that Ensure a Basic Foundation for Families on Work Requirements
This working paper outlines the ramifications of taking away Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and housing assistance from those who do not document meeting new work and community engagement requirements. The paper underscores how proposals that take away basic assistance from people who don’t meet work requirements are ill-informed, ineffective, inefficient, and inequitable, while alternative policies would produce far better outcomes.
Investing in Futures: Economic and Fiscal Benefits of Postsecondary Education in Prison
GCPI and the Vera Institute of Justice make the case for how lifting the current ban on awarding Pell Grants to incarcerated people would benefit workers, employers, and states. Specifically, it analyzes the potential employment and earnings impact of postsecondary education programs in prison; identifies the millions of job openings annually that require the skills a person in prison could acquire through postsecondary education and estimates the money states would save through lower recidivism rates these postsecondary education programs would yield.
A Civil Rights Issue: Sexual Harassment & The Tipped Minimum Wage
Raising the minimum wage and eliminating the tipped minimum wage would empower workers to report and address sexual harassment in the workforce and would be especially beneficial to women.
A Civil Rights Issue: The Minimum Wage & Wage Theft
Raising the minimum wage, improving wage theft protections, and eliminating the tipped minimum wage can help ensure workers’ receive their legally owed earnings and improve their economic security.
A Civil Rights Issue: The Tipped Minimum Wage & Working People of Color
Eliminating the tipped minimum wage would help redress the racial and gender iniquities that are rooted in the racist origins of the tipped minimum wage that still exist today.
Will You Count? American Indians and Alaska Natives in the 2020 Census
American Indians and Alaska Natives have been historically undercounted for decades, in part due to the fact that roughly than one in four American Indians and Alaska Natives live in hard-to-count census tracts. Factors such as poverty, educational attainment, and housing insecurity can compound American Indians and Alaska Natives’ risk of being undercounted. Being undercounted potentially disadvantages American Indian and Alaska Native families, communities, and neighborhoods.