UMass Boston: Center for Social Policy: Bridging The Gaps

Noteworthy:

11/07: When Wages Don't Pay the Bills.
Learn More:
Link to a 11/1/07 Boston Globe Editorial.

Center for Social Policy,
McCormack Graduate School, University of Massachusetts Boston

100 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, MA 02125-3393

Phone: (617) 287 5550
Fax: (617) 287 5544

Bridging The Gaps - Massachusetts

The Bridging the Gaps Massachusetts report, "*Bridging the Gaps Between Earnings and Basic Needs in Massachusetts*," analyzes the gaps in public policies intended to support low-wage working families in Massachusetts, and shows how policy could be designed to give all working families the opportunity to bridge the gaps between their earnings and a basic standard of living. Click *here* to download Executive Summary only.

About the Project

CSP’s Donna Haig Friedman, Jennifer Shea and Randy Albelda teamed up with One Family, Inc Community Director Katie Campbell Simons and One Family Scholars Khymi Woo and Tiffany Haines in Washington DC to talk to members of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation about Bridging the Gaps findings and what it is like to live in the “gaps.”

Policymakers talk a great deal about "making work pay", but we know that most low-wage workers go without employment-based health insurance and retirement plans, and often have no paid time off. The Bridging The Gaps project examines the extent to which public work supports fill in the gaps for workers and their families by combining data on who is eligible for work supports with data from government surveys and personal stories from workers trying to make ends meet.

The Bridging the Gaps project is led by the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the Center for Social Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston, in collaboration with organizations in nine states and the District of Columbia. Our partners are based in Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Washington and the District of Columbia. These partners contributed to both the research and outreach phases of this project.