With the third-highest level of working poverty in the country, many New Mexican families are already struggling to make ends meet, and predatory financial services further strip their wealth and exacerbate financial insecurity. The New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty (NMCLP) is working to protect low-income communities from predatory lenders and tax preparation services. PolicyLink, Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) at the University of Southern California, and NMCLP, with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, co-produced two fact sheets: one highlighting the impact of predatory lenders on Native American communities, and one describing how expensive tax preparation services cost New Mexican families up to $54 million in 2015. These tools will support NMCLP’s policy campaigns to regulate predatory financial services and protect working families. Download Ensuring New Mexicans Receive Their Full Tax Refund and New Mexicans Deserve Fair Loans.

While Louisiana’s economy has improved in recent years, people of color are still disproportionately represented among the state’s economically insecure. Men of color face particular barriers to employment due to discrimination and gaps in work-based skills. If full employment was achieved across all gender and racial groups, Louisiana's economy could be $3.5 billion stronger each year. Investing in men of color and critical education and training systems for Louisiana’s workforce will shift the state toward a course for greater prosperity for all. This brief is the fifth and final in a series about employment equity in the South (following analyses produced for Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and North Carolina) based on data analysis and modeling of a “full-employment economy” (defined as when everyone who wants a job can find one), which was conducted by the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) at the University of Southern California as well as policy research and focus groups conducted by PolicyLink and the Louisiana Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Download the report, detailed methodology, and fact sheet.

North Carolina has the second largest rural population in the country, with one in three residents living in rural areas. Rural North Carolinians face higher levels of unemployment and poverty than their urban counterparts, and earn lower incomes. Changing this situation and achieving employment equity — when everyone who wants to work has access to a job that pays family-supporting wages and the lack of a good job cannot be predicted by race, gender, or geography — is crucial to the economic future of not only rural North Carolina, but that of the entire state. This is the fourth of five briefs about employment equity in southern states produced by the National Equity Atlas partnership with the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) with the support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. This report was released in partnership with Rural Forward NC and the NC Budget & Tax Center. Download the report, detailed methodology, and fact sheet.

While economic insecurity is a widespread challenge for an increasing number of Mississippians, women and people of color are disproportionately represented among the economically insecure. This brief highlights how employment equity is essential to the state's future. If full employment was achieved across all gender and racial groups, Mississippi's economy could be $2.5 billion stronger each year. Investing in women and in critical support systems for Mississippi’s workforce will disrupt Mississippi’s current pattern of economic exclusion and place the state on a course to greater prosperity for all. The report is the third of five briefs about employment equity in southern states based on data analysis and modeling of a “full-employment economy” (defined as when everyone who wants a job can find one), which was conducted by the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) at the University of Southern California as well as policy research and focus groups conducted by PolicyLink and the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative, with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Download the report, detailed methodology, and fact sheet.

Media: Analysis: Pay Gap and Cost of Child Care Create Obstacles (The Washington Times, Miami Herald), Study: Full Employment Across Racial, Gender Lines Would Boost Economy (Mississippi Public Broadcasting), What's Holding Mississippi Back? Pay Gap, Child Care Costs, Report Says (Clarion-Ledger), Initiative Looking to Help Low Income Mothers Find Better Jobs (Jackson’s WJTV)

This report presents new data illustrating how the combination of rising rents and stagnant incomes is straining household budgets and stifling opportunity for all but the very wealthy in the nine-county Bay Area, raising serious questions about the sustainability of the region’s economy. The report was developed as part of the Bay Area Equity Atlas partnership between PolicyLink, the San Francisco Foundation, and the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity at the University of Southern California (PERE). Key findings include:

• Between 2000 and 2016, rents increased 24 percent while renter incomes rose just 9 percent.
• There are 480,000 economically insecure renter households in the region that are paying $9,000 too much for housing per year, on average.
• A family of two full-time workers each making $15/hour can only afford market rent in 5 percent of Bay Area neighborhoods.
• 92 percent of these neighborhoods affordable to working-class families are rated "very low opportunity" on a comprehensive index of neighborhood opportunity. 

How are people using this data? The analyses in this report served as the basis for factsheets and maps developed with Working Partnerships, Urban Habitat, and EBASE to support their tenant protection policy campaigns. The Bay Area Economic Council used this data in their report analyzing policy solutions to the housing crisis in Alameda County. KQED Forum host Michael Krasny used it to open up his conversation with housing activist Randy Shaw about his book Generation Priced Out. The Partnership for the Bay's Future used our data to frame the need for investment in housing solutions.

Media mentions: Housing Is Key to Bay Area's Economic Future, Study Finds (Philanthropy News Digest), New Report Examines the Bay Area's Broken Housing Market (Planetizen), World Journal

850,000 of Alabama's working-age adults are economically insecure and struggling to find good jobs: jobs that pay enough to support a family, offer safe working conditions, and provide meaningful opportunities to move up the economic ladder. Advancing Employment Equity in Alabama describes why employment equity — when everyone who wants a job can find one — is critical to Alabama's economic future and offers a policy roadmap to achieve employment equity. It is based on data analysis and modeling of a "full-employment economy" as well as policy research and focus groups conducted by PolicyLink and the Alabama Asset Building Coalition. With full employment for all, Alabama's economy would be $3.9 billion stronger every year. However, to realize these gains, state leaders must be willing to eliminate barriers to employment through efforts such as expanding public transportation options, banning the box on criminal background checks, and supporting the growth of minority- and women-owned business enterprises. This is the second of five briefs about employment equity in southern states co-produced by PolicyLink, Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) at the University of Southern California, and local partners with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Download the report, detailed methodology, and fact sheet "Employment Equity: The Path to a More Competitive Alabama."

This brief describes why employment equity is critical to Georgia’s economic future and lays out a policy roadmap to achieve employment equity. It is based on data analysis and modeling of a “full-employment economy” (defined as when everyone who wants a job can find one), which was conducted by the Program for Environmental and RegionalEquity (PERE) at the University of Southern California as well as policy research and focus groups conducted by PolicyLink and the Partnership for Southern Equity.  See the detailed methodology and fact sheet "Employment Equity: The Path to a More Competitive Georgia."

Renters now represent the majority in the nation’s 100 largest cities, and contribute billions to local economies. Yet renters face a toxic mix of rising rents and stagnant wages, both of which add up to an unprecedented affordability crisis that stymies their ability to contribute to the broader economy and thrive. This analysis, produced in support of the Renter Week of Action occurring September 16-24, reveals what renters and the nation stand to gain from addressing this crisis. We find that nationwide, if renters paid only what was affordable for housing, they would have $124 billion extra to spend in the community every year, or $6,200 per rent-burdened household. Download the national fact sheet and press release.

You can also download fact sheets for the following cities: Alameda, Atlanta, Baltimore, Birmingham, Boston, Bowling Green (KY), Brooklyn, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Durham, El Paso, Jackson, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Lynn (MA), Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, Newark, New York, Oakland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, Providence, Reno, Rochester, San Diego, Santa Ana, Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, Seattle, Spokane, Springfield (MA), St. Paul, Washington DC.

Online data tools hold tremendous power to amplify community efforts to advance health equity through policy and systems change. In the spirit of nurturing the growing equity data field and contributing to its evolution, this report, developed in partnership with Ecotrust, offers up a set of 10 design principles for online data tools intended to spur health equity action. The principles include addressing the root causes of health inequities, disaggregating data, and honoring indigenous data sovereignty. For the full list and examples of each principle, download the report here.