> RNR Home

> RNR Archives

> RNR Help

> IWPR Home

May 5, 2005

IWPR’s Research News Reporter is distributed monthly to highlight inventive, informative, innovative, and sometimes controversial research relating to women and their families. Each selection includes a short description of the research and either a link to the report itself or a citation. We sometimes include short pieces in their entirety.

In this edition:

1. Valuing Good Health: An Estimate of the Costs and Savings for the Healthy Families Act
2. Finding the Better Fit: Receiving Unemployment Insurance Increases Likelihood of Re-Employment with Health Insurance
3. New Turf for Organizing: Family Child Care Providers
4. ¿Tienes EITC? A Study of the Earned Income Tax Credit in Immigrant Communities

1. Valuing Good Health: An Estimate of the Costs and Savings for the Healthy Families Act

Vicky Lovell

Institute for Women’s Policy Research

April 2005

A new report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research estimates the annual costs and benefits of providing seven days of paid sick leave to covered employees through the proposed federal legislation, the Healthy Families Act (HFA). Specifically, IWPR estimates that:

• The HFA would save employers and families $28.4 billion dollars per year.
• 65.8 million employees would receive expanded sick leave coverage under the HFA.
• The cost of the HFA would be $5.98 per covered worker per week. Savings will be larger, at $8.38 per covered worker per week.
• The HFA would be likely to yield additional benefits such as reduced presenteeism, which prolongs illnesses and drains employee morale, better health outcomes for children when their parents can stay home to care for them, and increased financial stability and economic well-being for families.

http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/B248.pdf

IWPR’s press release from the April 27th report release is also available online:

http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/HFA_PR_4-27-05.pdf

Valuing Good Health in Massachusetts: An Estimate of Costs and Savings for the Paid Sick Days Act

Vicky Lovell

Institute for Women’s Policy Research

May 2005

Using the methodology developed for the HFA cost estimates described above, IWPR also completed estimates of the costs and benefits of the proposed Massachusetts Paid Sick Days Act (PSDA). The report estimates that the annual costs of the program would total $808.7 million, while the savings would total $645.0 million per year.

http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/B249.pdf

On May 4, 2005, Dr. Vicky Lovell testified about IWPR cost and savings estimates of the Massachusetts Paid Sick Days Act before the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development. Her testimony is available online:

http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/testimony.pdf

2. Finding the Better Fit: Receiving Unemployment Insurance Increases Likelihood of Re-Employment with Health Insurance

Heather Boushey and Jeffrey Wegner

The Economic Policy Institute and the Center for Economic and Policy Research

April 14, 2005

Using data for 1996 to 2003 from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, the authors find that while the receipt of Unemployment Insurance (UI) can prolong periods of unemployment, it also gives job seekers extra time to find better job matches. The issue brief reports that women who receive UI while unemployed are 5.6 percent more likely than other women to be hired into a job that provides employer-sponsored health care. Men who receive UI are 5.7 percent more likely than other men to be hired into a job with health insurance. This analysis suggests that the provision of UI has a positive effect on the overall economy.

http://www.epinet.org/issuebriefs/205/ib205.pdf

3. New Turf for Organizing: Family Child Care Providers

Fred P. Brooks

Labor Studies Journal, Volume 29, Number 4 (Winter 2005)

This article examines the recent efforts by the Service Employee’s International Union Local 880 to organize family child care providers in Illinois. The article reports that less than 5 percent of child care providers are unionized in the United States, and the industry is facing a crisis in providing quality care and maintaining well-trained staff. The author’s analysis of the organizing files of the union, interviews with members, and participant observation suggested that union representation may have substantial effects on wages, turnover, and job quality. The author argues that experience of the Local 880 highlights five lessons: family child care workers can be organized, recognition will be difficult, grassroots organizing is key, direct political involvement and coalition work is important, and the issue should be framed as “what is best for children.”

4 . ¿Tienes EITC ? A Study of the Earned Income Tax Credit in Immigrant Communities

Alan Berube

The Brookings Institution, Metropolitan Policy Program

April 2005

This report uses data from the 2000 Census and individual tax information from the IRS to examine the use of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) by zip code. The authors find that over half of all foreign-born individuals in the United States lived in just 5 percent of zip codes. These high-immigrant zip codes are distributed across the U.S., with 36 states having at least one high-immigrant zip code. The report also showed that in tax year 1999, 21 percent of families living in high-immigrant zip codes received the EITC, compared to 15 percent of families nationwide. Interestingly, the authors find that EITC-receiving families within high-immigrant communities are more likely than other families to pay a tax preparation service to file their income taxes. The authors recommend increasing volunteer tax preparation services in high-immigrant communities, conducting additional EITC outreach to immigrant taxpayers, and researching the effect of the EITC on the economic health of high-immigrant communities.

http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20050412_tieneseitc.htm

This edition of IWPR’s Research News Reporter was prepared by Misha Werschkul.