In the past year alone, some policy researchers and funders have increased calls to score federal and state legislative proposals for equity, resulting in the launch of new scoring initiatives. These initiatives show demand and interest in using equity assessments to influence policy as it is designed, not just to offer a postmortem after new policies are in place.
To test the scoring concept, we consider the potential equity impacts of an expanded child tax credit (CTC) and the Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act. Our criteria for the potential to achieve racial equity are (1) if a policy improves outcomes, on average, for all racial and ethnic groups; (2) if the gaps between previously better-off and worse-off groups narrow; and (3) whether the policy harms any particular group.
We find that full expansion of the child tax credit would help lower poverty rates experienced by families of color while benefiting all families receiving the credit regardless of racial and ethnic background. Similarly, expanding paid family leave coverage through the FAMILY Act would increase access to paid family and medical leave for all workers while reducing gaps in access for Hispanic and Black workers. The relatively large magnitude and clear direction of positive change in both cases signal promise for improving equity.
These equity analyses are not meant to suggest that any single policy could close gaps between racial and ethnic groups. Instead, we encourage readers to consider these analyses as approximations of how much a given policy could improve overall averages and narrow gaps in outcomes between groups. The fact that the FAMILY Act doesn’t create full access to paid leave and that the child poverty rate is still around 8 percent after the CTC expansion clearly indicates that additional policy solutions would be required to boost family well-being and protection for all groups.
Policies are multifaceted, so analyzing one dimension of equity on its own, like race, does not paint a complete picture of paths to improve equity. A deeper equity assessment could examine more intersectional effects or effects related to program participation.
Although these particular policies involve individual or household take-up of a benefit, the policy barriers and solutions are systemic and structural. Policies that confer rights, such as the right to paid leave to care for family members, can expand options and opportunity for a wide range of families and therefore could do more to improve well-being for all income, race, gender, and other groups than policies that create short-term programs or benefits. In doing so, such policies illustrate the value of including strategies to improve overall outcomes and address past disadvantage in policy design. These policies also illustrate that equity is not a zero-sum calculation with winners and losers; rather, equitable policies can create cascading benefits for all. Until policies that confer these rights are expanded to include the people currently excluded from policy coverage or protections, the relative ranking of access to benefits between groups will likely remain the same.
