While a number of states took action recently this year to increase their minimum wages and expand overtimes protections, West Virginia moved in the opposite direction. SB 377, which passed and was signed by the governor, exempted seasonal amusement park workers from being eligible for overtime pay, while HB 2048, which was introduced by not taken…
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After the Trump administration announced last year that it would support state efforts to add “work requirements” waivers to their Medicaid programs, no less than 15 states have filed for these waivers. In addition to value statements around such things as “fairness”, proponents of these work requirements argue (under the administration’s guidance) that work requirements…
With this month's Special Session on education reform looming, Speaker Hanshaw has floated the idea of replacing one controversial policy proposal, Education Savings Accounts (ESA), with another, tax credit scholarships. Like ESA's, tax credit scholarships are another voucher-like policy that create financial incentives for students to leave the public school system and enter into the…
West Virginia experienced historic gains in the number of residents insured when the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion were implemented. In fact, West Virginia arguably benefited more than any other state from the provisions of the Affordable Care Act. In 2013, prior to implementation, the state’s uninsured rate was 14 percent. By 2016, it…
West Virginia has made headlines recently for its continued population decline. And recently released population estimates from the Census Bureau show that only a handful of West Virginia counties have been immune from the dropping population. Between 2010 and 2018, West Virginia’s population fell by an estimated 47,000 people, or a decline of 2.6%. West…
More than 91,000 children live in poverty in West Virginia. At 25.5%, West Virginia has the 4th-highest child poverty rate in the country. The cost of child poverty is high. According to a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, child poverty costs the U.S. between $800 billion and $1.1 trillion a year,…
Revised job figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that West Virginia has experienced relatively strong job growth over the last year thanks to the construction industry. In particular, the growth in natural gas pipeline construction has fueled not only this job growth and but also the state’s short-term revenue surpluses—especially during the last…
Working families with low- and moderate-incomes often struggle to keep afloat and many childless adults are often taxed into poverty. On April 10, 2019, Senators Sherrod Brown, Michael Bennet, Richard Durbin, and Ron Wyden introduced the “Working Families Tax Relief Act” that aims to expand both the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) as well as…
Last month, the Department of Labor published a proposal to set the salary threshold under which almost all workers are entitled to overtime pay to $679 per week, or $35,308 for a full-year worker, in 2020. While an increase in the overtime salary threshold is long overdue, the current proposal would leave behind millions of workers…
Click here to see our full comments on the USDA’s proposed rule. SNAP plays a critical role for food security in West Virginia, where 14.6 percent of the population is food insecure. In Fiscal Year 2017, SNAP reached 19 percent of the population, or 340,000 residents. Children who receive SNAP in early childhood see improved…