Working Hard Yet Still Falling Behind: The Hidden Face of Financial Hardship in NJ

Is there a chance that Alice will have an impact at the federal level in terms of measuring poverty? Just seeing, I can't get over how archaic the federal measures are and the opportunity to really improve, to use this across the nation.

Yeah, I think it's been recognized for a long time, the shortcomings of the federal poverty level.

Most federal programs are now at least some kind of multiple of the federal poverty level, 138% for SNAP and Medicare and, gosh, 250%, 400% for some of the child care programs.

But a multiple of an arbitrary number is still an arbitrary number.

We are advocates of shifting to something like the Alice measure.

A lot of work went into building the supplemental poverty measure, which moved the needle a very tiny amount.

So more needs to be done.

I'm not sure much is going to be happening at the federal level in the next couple of years in this way, but certainly in our sites.

But we're not limited to that.

There's things that states can do, and there's things that non-governmental players can do.

We work a lot with companies, academic institutions, credit unions, all kinds of organizations are using the ALICE measures to do their work better.

And that's really exciting to see.

It really is.

And in a relatively short amount of time.

I mean, it's remarkable, the work and the impact.

I love how United Way has also tried to help corporations and businesses think about what kind of scheduling adjustments, creative childcare solutions, compensation policies can help.

You all are serving a real purpose in the business community as well.

We were so surprised the interest from companies, but they get it that they see Alice in their workforce.

They see Alice as their customers.

Some of our hospital partners see that Alice as their patients.

So we actually have a program called Alice at Work, and it's a education and action program for company leaders to go through and understand Alice in their workforce.

We analyze their employee data and give them an estimate of how many Alice employees are in their organization and then go through a series of modules of things that you can do.

So the most obvious are, you know, benefits and compensation.

But as Justin just said, like scheduling can actually save Alice a lot of money.

If you can get have some flexibility of when you start or end your workday, you might not have to pay another hour of childcare.