Supplementary Resources
There are many available resources and those that follow provide a range of information and perspectives on government data and related research and policy studies. Topics include: working poor and low wage labor markets, minimum wage, work and the earned income tax credit, work and welfare reform, work and affordable housing, health insurance, social security and working people, and drug testing.
Data Resources
United States
"A Profile of the Working Poor, 2000." U.S. Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. March 2002.
"2003 Official U.S. Poverty Guidelines." U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning & Evaluation. February 2003.
"Who was poor in 2001?" Institute for Research on Poverty. September 2002.
North Carolina
"Mass Layoffs in the North Carolina Economy: A Study of Reemployment Experiences." Employment Security Commission of North Carolina. April 1999.
"New Socioeconomic Portrait of North Carolina: Highlights from the Census 2000 Profiles of Selected Social, Economic, and Housing Characteristics." NC State Data Center. Office of State Budget and Management. May 23, 2002.
"1999 North Carolina School District Estimate of Poverty." U.S. Census Bureau.
"NC Works: A Study of the North Carolina Workforce." Employment Security Commission of North Carolina. February 2000.
"North Carolina Economic Development." NC Department of Commerce.
Related Research and Policy Studies
Working Poor and Low-wage Labor Markets
Bartlett, Bruce. "How Poor are the Poor?" The American Enterprise 7, no. 1 (January 1, 1996).
Fishman, Michael E., and Harold Beebout. "Supports for Working Poor Families: A New Approach." The Lewin Group. December 2001.
Lerman, Robert I., and Felicity Skidmore. "Helping Low-Wage Workers: Policies for the Future." Summary of Presentations at the Urban Institute Conference. Washington: Urban Institute, 1999.
"The Low-Wage Labor Market: Challenges and Opportunities for Economic Self-Sufficiency." U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. December 1999.
Schmidt, Sorien K. and Elizabeth A. Jordan. Working Hard Is Still Not Enough. Raleigh: North Carolina Justice and Community Development Center, 2003.
PDF format
HTML format (some portions of original not available in this version)
"A Study of the Working Poor." Employment Security Commission of North Carolina. May 1999.
The Minimum Wage
Bernstein, Jared. "EPI Issue Guide on the Minimum Wage." Washington: Economic Policy Institute, 2001.
"Living-Wage Movement." The CQ Researcher 12, no. 33 (September 27, 2002): 769-92.
UNC-Chapel Hill campus access *
"Minimum Wage." Almanac of Policy Issues. September 2002.
"The Minimum Wage: Increasing the Reward for Work." National Economic Council. March 2000.
Wilson, D. Mark. "Who is Paid the Minimum Wage and Who Would be Affected by a $1.50 per Hour Increase." The Heritage Foundation. June 28, 2001.
Work and the Earned Income Tax Credit
"Good News for Low Income Families: Expansions in the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Minimum Wage." The Council of Economic Advisers. December 1998.
Hoffman, Saul D., and Laurence S. Seidman. "Then and Now: The Earned Income Tax Credit." Employment Research 10, no. 1 (January 2003): 4-6.
Lott, John R., Jr. "When Welfare Is Disguised as a Tax Cut." American Enterprise Institute. July 2, 2003.
"Rewarding Work: State EITCs for Working Families." Center for Policy Alternatives. October 2000.
Work and Welfare Reform
Conte, Christopher. "Welfare, Work and the States." The CQ Researcher 6, no. 45 (December 6, 1996): 1057-80.
UNC-Chapel Hill campus access *
"How Will We Know If Welfare Reform Is Successful?" Institute for Research on Poverty. June 2000.
Koch, Kathy. "Child Poverty." The CQ Researcher 10, no. 13 (April 7, 2000): 281-304.
UNC-Chapel Hill campus access *
Loprest, Pamela J. "Who Returns to Welfare?" The Urban Institute. Series B, No. B-49, September 2002.
Rector, Robert, and Patrick F. Fagan. "The Continuing Good News About Welfare Reform." The Heritage Foundation. February 6, 2003.
Rector, Robert E., Kirk A. Johnson, Patrick F. Fagan, and Lauren R. Noyes. "Increasing Marriage Would Dramatically Reduce Child Poverty." The Heritage Foundation. May 20, 2003.
"Working Poor Families with Children: A Statistical Portrait." Trends in Child Research Brief. [1999].
Work and Affordable Housing
Fiore, Maria G., and Barbara J. Lipman. "Paycheck to Paycheck: Wages and the Cost of Housing in America." New Century Housing 2, issue 2 (May 2003).
McClure, Kirk. "Housing Vouchers versus Housing Production: Assessing Long-Term Costs." Housing Policy Debate 9, issue 2 (1998): 355-71.
Stegman, Michael A., Walter Davis, and Roberto Quercia. "The Earned Income Tax Credit as an Instrument of Housing Policy." The Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy. July 2003.
Health Insurance
Epstein, Keith. "Covering the Uninsured." The CQ Researcher 12, no. 23 (June 14, 2002): 521-44.
UNC-Chapel Hill campus access *
Wealth Inequality
Boshara, Ray. "The $6,000 Solution." The Atlantic Monthly 291, no. 1 (January/February 2003): 91-5.
Social Security and Working People
"Privatize Social Security to Help Working Poor." Cato Institute. December 9, 1999.
Social Security Reform: A Century Foundation Guide to the Issues. New York: The Century Foundation, 1998.
Drug Testing
Hartwell, Tyler D., Paul D. Steele, Michael T. French, and Nathaniel F. Rodman. "Prevalence of Drug Testing in the Workplace." Monthly Labor Review 119 no. 11 (November 1996): 35-61.
Additional Resources
"Nickel and Dimed." Transcript and audio from NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Public Broadcasting System, 20 December 2002.
"One Town, One Job: A Profile of Low-Wage America" -- National Public Radio's Noah Adams profiles the struggle to earn a living wage, June 2003.
"What to Pay?" Transcript, video, and audio from NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Public Broadcasting System, 1 August 2001.
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