![]() ![]() Two policy packages that a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel recently evaluated would cut in half both the child poverty rate and the gap in poverty rates between white children and Black and Latino children. The Biden Administration’s emergency relief proposal could cut child poverty in half and cut Black and Latino poverty by a third. Policymakers could make substantial progress in reducing the gaping racial disparities in poverty and access to opportunity by expanding the scope and reach of effective policies, such as housing vouchers, tax credits, and food assistance. Women of color have experienced especially sharp losses. Jobs in low-paying industries - disproportionately held by people of color - were down more than twice as much between February and December 2020 as jobs in medium-wage industries and nearly four times as much as in high-wage industries. What’s more, the economy of 2017 bears little resemblance to today’s, and early evidence suggests that the pandemic and downturn have worsened longstanding economic disparities by race and ethnicity. These figures are not much lower than they were in 1973 (38 percent for Black, 37 percent for Latino, and 23 percent for white workers). In 2016, 1 in 3 Black (33 percent) and Latino (34 percent) workers earned below-poverty wages, as did nearly 1 in 5 white workers (19 percent), according to the Economic Policy Institute. Child poverty reflected the same dynamic, with Black and Latino child poverty rates at 21.3 and 20.3 percent, respectively, compared to 8.3 percent among white children.Įven in the relatively strong pre-pandemic economy, many households struggled to afford rent and other necessities. ĭespite this progress, past and present discrimination in both private markets and public policies left poverty rates in 2017 more than twice as high among Black (20.9 percent) and Latino (20.1 percent) people than among white people (9.8 percent). Moreover, many studies have found that assistance programs like nutrition aid and health coverage improve children’s long-term trajectories some of the poverty reduction stemming from, for example, improved educational attainment is due to investments in nutrition and health care years earlier when adults were children. ![]() In contrast, in 2017, accounting for government benefits and taxes lowered the white poverty rate by 12 percentage points, Black poverty by 16 percentage points, and Latino poverty by 12 percentage points. ![]() In 1970, families’ government benefits and the taxes they paid lowered the white poverty rate by 3 percentage points and the Black poverty rate by 2 percentage points, and left the Latino poverty rate unchanged. (Rather than the official poverty measure, this report uses a variant of the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which among other advantages incorporates the value of non-cash and tax-based benefits, as we detail below.)Įconomic security programs have become more effective at reducing poverty and racial disparities over the last five decades. Our series begins in 1970, the first year that data on Latino ethnicity are available, and ends in 2017, the latest year that data on underreporting of key government benefits are available. ![]() Even with this reduction, poverty rates for Black and Latino people remained far above the white poverty rate. While government programs have done much to narrow these disparities in poverty, further progress will require stronger government efforts to reduce poverty and discrimination and build opportunity for all.īetween 19 the poverty rate fell for all groups, but it fell even more for Black and Latino people: by 27 and 24 percentage points, respectively, compared to 8 percentage points for white non-Latino people, we calculate. "While government programs have done much to narrow these disparities in poverty, further progress will require stronger government efforts to reduce poverty and discrimination and build opportunity for all."Īt the same time, barriers to opportunity, including discrimination and disparities in access to employment, education, and health care, remain enormous and keep poverty rates much higher for some racial and ethnic groups than others. Over the last half-century, these assistance programs have reduced poverty for millions of people - including children, who are highly susceptible to poverty’s ill effects. Economic security programs such as Social Security, food assistance, tax credits, and housing assistance can help provide opportunity by ameliorating short-term poverty and hardship and, by doing so, improving children’s long-term outcomes. Our success as a nation depends on whether all people, regardless of race or ethnicity, have the opportunity to thrive. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |