Arkansans wages and poverty levels remained flat in 2018, despite the continued economic growth and historically low unemployment rates of recent years, according to new Census data. Conditions were even worse for children, who experienced a decline in their economic...
Fewer of Arkansas’s children are living in communities of concentrated poverty, according to “Children Living in High Poverty, Low-Opportunity Neighborhoods,” a new KIDS COUNT® data snapshot released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Using the latest data available from the...
Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families’ mission is to ensure that all children and families have the resources and opportunities to lead healthy lives and reach their full potential. We accomplish this by researching the needs and challenges of...
Today the U.S. Census Bureau published its annual release of national-level statistics on income, poverty and health insurance coverage. As we wrote in our previous blog post, these statistics are based on the Current Population Survey, which is useful...
It’s been more than a decade since the Great Recession officially ended, and unemployment rates across the nation have reached historic lows. That’s also true in Arkansas, where the unemployment rate averaged 3.8 percent in 2018 based on an...
The Trump administration is moving forward with its effort to radically change the federal policy under which immigrants are deemed a “public charge.” Unless the rule change is defeated in a legal challenge, we can expect millions of children...
Growing evidence shows that minimum wage increases help to increase take-home pay and reduce poverty without reducing employment. That’s why Arkansans overwhelmingly voted to raise the minimum wage in 2018. As we wrote last week, the CBO confirmed the...
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently released a report analyzing the economic impact of raising the federal minimum wage to $15 in 2025. They find that a federal $15 minimum wage would boost worker pay, increase the income of...
In May, the federal government asked for comments on changing how it calculates the poverty line (read our previous blog post on this topic). The federal poverty line represents the smallest amount of money that a family will need...
Our annual Finish Line report looks at the status of health care coverage for Arkansas’s children and families. The report examines changes over the years and recommends actions to get Arkansas to The Finish Line: 100 percent coverage of...