Rebecca Jack (University of Nebraska, Lincoln) will use data from the competitive 21st Community Learning Center Grants – federal funding targeted at providing afterschool care – to estimate how expanded afterschool care affects mothers’ employment and earnings. Co-funded with the Russell Sage Foundation. Additional support provided by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.

Francisca Alba (Michigan State University) will explore why many EITC recipients in Michigan rely on costly, low-quality tax filing methods over a free, state-provided tax preparation program and test whether providing information about the program can shift their behavior. Co-funded with the Russell Sage Foundation. Additional support provided by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.

Aida Pacheco-Applegate (University of Chicago) will study the effects of preschool expansion and wage grants on early care and education providers in Chicago to demonstrate how public investments affect provider stability, service distribution, and equitable access. Co-funded with the Russell Sage Foundation. Additional support provided by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.

Darien Kearney (Howard University) will use longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (2005–2015) and structural modeling to examine how perceived racial discrimination affects labor market outcomes among Black Americans. Co-funded with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research and the Russell Sage Foundation. Additional support provided by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.

This project seeks to determine the feasibility of a paid family and medical leave insurance (PFMLI) program with an opt-out mechanism. While state PFMLI programs in the United States vary somewhat in program parameters, all essentially require eligible workers to participate and are funded through payroll contributions. Some allow employers to self-insure and opt out of the public program. Generally, employees do not have that option. But proposed legislation in New Hampshire would create a program that contains an employee opt-out mechanism. There is a large gap in understanding of this design choice. Which individuals would opt out? And which would opt out initially and then opt in later? And how would that interact with the employer self-insurance opt-out? The answers have lasting implications for the cost of the program, the level of benefits that can be offered, the possibility of implicit or explicit bias against low-wage women workers of reproductive age, and the ultimate success of the program. The researcher will create, distribute, and analyze a survey of New Hampshire workers in an effort to predict their behavior if such a program were to be implemented.

This project seeks to identify the impact of workforce characteristics on the employer costs of implementing paid leave policies. The researchers will perform an empirical examination of the way New York City’s paid sick days law has affected covered businesses. They will undertake an employer survey of 350 firms, analyze the impact of workforce characteristics on costs, firm profitability, the share of the workforce that has access to paid sick days, and on the number of paid sick days available to specific categories of workers before and after the law.