Equity policies are policies that address the disparities among demographic groups. Different groups do not necessarily have the same experience, nor do they necessarily have the same challenges. Different levels of income obviously also play a role in equity and access to financial and educational resources. The introduction to this report noted, for example, that many LGBTQ+ individuals have at one point been cut off from their family, including financially, while Black individuals are more likely to have credit applications denied. And in discussing benefit policy, we noted that many immigrants are not able to apply for means-tested programs, creating a “chilling effect” on eligible individuals in mixed-status households, while individuals with a drug felony are potentially banned for life from ever receiving SNAP or other forms of assistance, although many states have already lifted such restrictions.

This report does not have room to give the needs of these groups (and many others) the space they deserve to be aired fully, nor does it have the aim of carving a cohesive policy to end disparity tailored to the needs and experiences of a group. Rather, including equity as part of the economic security portfolio is a means of acknowledging that ignoring these disparities or treating them as “out of scope” will not alleviate, and may further exacerbate, disparity.

In addition, policies do not need to be designed or targeted to a specific population to decrease disparity. Social Security Old Age Insurance, for example, greatly reduces poverty for Black seniors and counteracts the lower earnings, lower savings, and lower wealth that Black retirees have, on average.³⁷⁴For an introduction to differences in wealth between Black and White Americans (often called the Black-White wealth gap or racial wealth gap,) you can read The Racial Wealth Gap in the United States. Three reports provide an overview of how Black Americans benefit from Social Security: Social Security Helps African Americans Save for Retirement  (AARP), African American Economic Security and the Role of Social Security (Urban Institute), or Social Security: A Vital Protection for African American People of All Ages (CBPP). In addition, the NAACP released this statement on Social Security: Viewing Social Security through the Civil Rights Lens. By extension, Social Security works to mitigate the effects of discrimination that many Black workers face in the labor market.³⁷⁵This review in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences summarizes twenty years of field experiments to show that discrimination in hiring toward Black job applicants is large and consistent: Meta-analysis of Field Experiments Shows No Change in Racial Discrimination in Hiring over Time. Hence, creating a new minimum benefit for OASDI is considered equity policy.³⁷⁶Changes to OASDI fall primarily under the category of Benefit Policy for the purpose of this report and are thus not included in this section. With that said, establishing a new minimum benefit under OASDI has obvious equity implications. Similarly, Hispanic workers make up 17 percent of total employment but 27 percent of food service and preparation employment. Ending the subminimum wage for tipped workers could help with earnings disparity between Hispanics and non-Hispanics,³⁷⁷Table 11 of the Annual Labor Force Statistics tables from the Current Population Survey shows occupational distribution of workers by gender, race, and ethnicity. but it might also have unintended consequences, such as reducing employment.³⁷⁸Even, William E., and David A. Macpherson. 2014. The Effect of the Tipped Minimum Wage on Employees in the U.S. Restaurant Industry. Southern Economic Journal, 80(3), 633-655.

By some estimates, one-third of the working-age population has a criminal record. These records contain prior convictions and may contain charges and arrests that did not result in conviction.³⁷⁹For a discussion of criminal records and the number of Americans who have them, see Just Facts: As Many Americans Have Criminal Records as College Diplomas from the Brennan Center for Justice. Nearly half of U.S. children have at least one parent with a record.³⁸⁰For more on the impact of criminal records on children, see Removing Barriers to Opportunity for Parents with Criminal Records and Their Children: A Two-Generation Approach from the Center for American Progress. These records appear in a background check for a job or for rental, credit, education, or loan applications. In addition, many states have provisions that bar certain individuals with convictions from obtaining certain occupational licenses.³⁸¹Barrier to Work: People with Criminal Records, National Conference of State Legislatures.

Most states allow individuals to apply to have at least some types of records sealed or expunged. A sealed record is no longer in public view, but can be opened by court order. Expungement removes the arrests or conviction entirely from the record.³⁸²More on the difference between sealed and expunged records can be found on FindLaw. While sealing and expungement are powerful tools for removing barriers to employment, housing, and other opportunities, research indicates that very few eligible people are successful in clearing their records due to the cost and complexity of petition-based court processes.³⁸³A University of Michigan study found that just 6.5 percent of eligible individuals were able to obtain a “set-aside” in Michigan within five years of becoming eligible. Such procedures generally require filing a detailed application, paying filing fees, making court appearances, and submitting fingerprints.³⁸⁴A guide to the process for restoration of rights in every U.S. jurisdiction is maintained by the Collateral Consequences Resource Center, Restoration of Rights Project. 

Options:

1. Make criminal record-clearing automatic. Over half the states have expanded eligibility for record-clearing over the past decade, with seven—Pennsylvania, Utah, Michigan, Virginia, Connecticut, Delaware, and California—enacting laws that make record-clearing automatic after a period of crime-free time.³⁸⁵Follow these links to learn more about Clean Slate laws in Pennsylvania, Utah, Michigan, Virginia, Connecticut, Delaware, and California. Automatic record-clearing puts second chances within reach whether or not someone is able to afford a lawyer to help them navigate a complex and costly court process.³⁸⁶Find out more about automatic record clearance at the Clean Slate Initiative.

2. Create a federal record-clearing mechanism. Federal law should allow for the clearing of federal arrest records for certain types of arrests.³⁸⁷The bipartisan Clean Slate Act, introduced in the House in 2019 and 2020 and in the Senate in 2020, would create the first-ever federal record-clearing remedy and make the process automatic for certain drug records. Currently, federal law offers virtually no way to clear a federal criminal record—even for people who were arrested but later acquitted or whose charges were dropped.³⁸⁸More on the absence of federal record-clearing can be found in this overview by the Collateral Consequences Resource Center.

3. Reform overly broad occupational licensing restrictions targeting people with criminal records. Nearly one in four U.S. workers needs a state license to work in their chosen field.³⁸⁹Furman, Jason, and Laura Giuliano. 2016. New Data Show that Roughly One-Quarter of U.S. Workers Hold an Occupational License. In recent years, to remove unnecessary barriers to employment and produce fairer licensing laws, states have increasingly taken steps to remove “blanket bans” in licensing laws—which automatically disqualify people with criminal records—and to adopt other “fair chance licensing” reforms.³⁹⁰The Institute for Justice provides more information on the “37 states and Washington, D.C. [that] have reformed their occupational licensing laws to make it easier for ex-offenders to find work in state-licensed fields” since 2015.

Racial wealth disparities are well documented. As of 2019, the median White family owned about $184,000 in wealth, compared to $23,000 for the median Black family and $38,000 for the median Hispanic family. In other words, the median Black and Hispanic families have $0.12 and $0.21, respectively, for every dollar of median White family wealth.³⁹¹Kent, Ana Hernández, and Lowell Ricketts. 2021. Wealth Gaps between White, Black and Hispanic Families in 2019. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. These disparities are also observed in homeownership, where the White homeownership rate is 74.5 percent, compared to 49.1 percent for Hispanic individuals and 44.1 percent for Black individuals.³⁹²U.S. Census Bureau. Housing Vacancies and Homeownership (CPS/HVS)—Historic Tables. Table 16, Q4 2020.

In addition to serving as a backstop during crises, wealth grants access to better opportunities. With wealth, families can afford to buy a home in a neighborhood where housing value is likely to appreciate or to send a child to preschool rather than have a parent stop working to serve as the caregiver. The home may bring access to a school system with sufficient resources, and preschool may bring socialization with peers at a young age. A basis of wealth provides opportunities and benefits that breed further opportunities and benefits.

Although policy cannot establish wealth for families overnight, it can help ensure that individuals are not excluded from key opportunities to succeed based merely on the level of their family’s wealth.

Options:

1. Enforce housing anti-discrimination laws more effectively. Discrimination in housing persists despite the Fair Housing Act’s enactment over fifty years ago.³⁹³Zonta documents evidence of the variety of “new forms of racial bias in housing” that have emerged in recent decades, including real estate agents steering “African Americans away from desirable neighborhoods and toward areas featuring larger concentrations of people of color, higher poverty levels, and lower housing quality compared with neighborhoods to where whites relocate.”Zonta, Michela. 2019. Racial Disparities in Home Appreciation.Center for American Progress. Stronger enforcement of housing anti-discrimination laws will ensure that people of color have equal access to all housing markets and the secondary benefits associated with those markets.

2. Create credit for first-time home buyers. Housing is a key asset, especially for households of color.³⁹⁴Neal, Michael, and Alanna McCargo. 2020. How Economic Crises and Sudden Disasters Increase Racial Disparities in Homeownership. Table 1. Urban Institute. As such, a credit for first-time home buyers might go a long way in helping households of color build wealth. To further emphasize the goal of wealth-gap reduction, proposals often require the relevant individual to be a first-generation home buyer.³⁹⁵Green, Dan. 2022. $25,000 Downpayment Toward Equity Act of 2021: Simplified. Homebuyer.com. A credit that lessens the burden of down payment will allow many renters to transition to homeownership and free up money for other home improvements following the purchase. ³⁹⁶Choi, Jung Hyun, and Janneke Ratcliffe. 2021. Down Payment Assistance Focused on First-Generation Buyers Could Help Millions Access the Benefits of Homeownership. Urban Institute.

3. Invest in universal, high-quality preschool education. Substantial evidence now exists that attending preschool improves long-term outcomes such as the likelihoods of attending college and not engaging in criminal activity.³⁹⁷Gray-Lobe et al. 2021 find that “attendance at a public preschool in Boston boosts on-time college enrollment by 8 percentage points, an 18% increase relative to the baseline college-going rate of 46%. Children who randomly win a seat at a Boston preschool are 5.5 percentage points more likely to attend a four-year college by the fall after projected high school graduation and 8.5 percentage points more likely to attend a Massachusetts college.”
Regarding the Head Start program, Schanzenback and Bauer 2016 find that it “improves educational outcomes— increasing the probability that participants graduate from high school, attend college, and receive a post-secondary degree, license, or certification” and that it “causes social, emotional, and behavioral development that becomes evident in adulthood measures of self-control, self-esteem, and positive parenting practices.”
Gray-Lobe, Guthrie, Parag A. Pathak, and Christopher R. Walters. 2021. The Long-Term Effects of Universal Preschool in Boston. NBER Working Paper No. 28756.
Schanzenbach, Diane Whitmore, and Laruen Bauer. 2016. The long-term impact of the Head Start program. Brookings Institution. Universal preschool also frees up parents who would otherwise be caregivers and allows them to participate in the labor market.³⁹⁸“In the years since Washington, D.C., began offering two years of universal preschool, the city’s maternal labor force participation rate has increased by about 12 percentage points, with 10 percentage points attributable to preschool expansion.”

Malik, Rasheed. 2018. The Effects of Universal Preschool in Washington, D.C. Center for American Progress. Universal, high-quality preschool improves the likelihood of wealth building in both the short and long run.

4. Make K–12 funding more equitable. Inequity in public school funding in the U.S. is extreme both within and across states.³⁹⁹Martin et al. 2018 discuss two neighboring school districts in Texas. As of 2013/2014, the Edgewood school district received “about $5,000 less per pupil in education funding than Alamo Heights, a wealthier, neighboring school district.” As such, “core services that have a significant influence on instructional quality and student performance are systematically unavailable to students in low-income schools relative to students in higher-income schools. These critical services include early childhood education, quality teachers, and exposure to rigorous curriculum.”
Indeed, Baker et al. 2018 find that seventeen states are regressive in their public school funding, meaning that higher-poverty school districts receive less funding per pupil than their lower-poverty counterparts. They also show the range of per pupil funding across states in 2015 at a high of $18,719 in New York to a low of $6,277 in Idaho.
Martin, Carmel, Meg Benner, Ulrich Boser, and Perpetual Baffour. 2018. A Quality Approach to School Funding. Center for American Progress.
Baker, Bruce, Danielle Farrie, and David G. Sciarra. 2018. Is School Funding Fair? A National Report Card. Education Law Center. The link between education spending on short-term outcomes such as test scores and college attendance is also now well established.⁴⁰⁰Jackson et al. 2021, for example, find that during the Great Recession, when school budgets were being cut, “cohorts exposed to these spending cuts had lower test scores and lower college-going rates. The test score impacts were larger for children in poor neighborhoods. Evidence suggests that both test scores and college-going were more adversely affected for Black and White students than Latinx students.”

Jackson, C. Kirabo, Cora Wigger, and Heyu Xiong. 2021. “Do School Spending Cuts Matter? Evidence from the Great Recession.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 13(2): 304-35. Greater equity in K–12 funding will help set all U.S. children on a trajectory toward success and stability in adult life.

5. Establish an affordable college compact. A large majority of colleges are not affordable for students receiving Pell Grants. ⁴⁰¹According to the National College Attainment Network, only 23 percent of four-year public colleges were affordable for a student who received the average-sized Pell Grant in 2018-19, with an average affordability gap of $2,524. Ten states had no affordable four-year public institutions, and 38 states had five or fewer.

National College Attainment Network. 2021. College Affordability. That a college degree significantly increases lifetime earnings is well established.⁴⁰²Carnevale et al. 2021 show that, at the median, compared to a high school diploma, lifetime earnings for a Black worker increase by 21 percent with an associate’s degree and 64 percent with a bachelor’s degree. For a Hispanic worker, those figures are 36 percent and 64 percent, respectively.

Carnevale, Anthony P., Ban Cheah, and Emma Wenzinger. 2021. The College Payoff: More Education Doesn’t Always Mean More Earnings. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. An affordable college compact would ensure that college is accessible to any and all students. Some options include the expansion of the Pell Grant program to target aid to low- and middle-income families more effectively; implementation of a federal–state partnership that rewards states that invest more in higher education; and subsidization of under-resourced schools that are working with low-income students.⁴⁰³Feldman, David H., and Christopher R. Marsicano. 2021. Moving Beyond Free: A College Affordability Compact for the Next Generation. Third Way.

Huelsman, Mark. 2014. The Affordable College Compact.

Demos.Startz, Dick. 2020. Biden’s Plan for Higher Ed is Good—But It Could Be Better. Brookings Institution.

6. Evaluate the case for proposals for paying reparations aimed at addressing the legacy effects of slavery and government policies that created discrimination and segregation of minority groups. The original policy of reparations dates to the time of the Civil War, when Special Field Order No. 15 required the redistribution of confiscated confederate land among newly freed slaves.⁴⁰⁴See Sherman’s Field Order No. 15 from the Georgia Encyclopedia, The Truth Behind 40 Acres and a Mule from PBS, and Black Reparations and the Racial Wealth Gap from authors William “Sandy” Darity and Kirsten Mullen. The redistribution was not realized, but the issue of reparations and the question of what, if anything, is owed to Black citizens of the U.S. has persisted. Furthermore, the failure of the government to fulfill this mandate is one source of the enduring racial wealth gap. House bill H.R. 40, introduced in every Congress since 1989, proposes the creation of a commission to study slavery and develop a proposal for its remedies.⁴⁰⁵Text of HR 40, introduced by Shelia Jackson Lee. Veteran Congressman Still Pushing for Reparations in a Divided America provides an overview of the many years’ effort of John Conyers to introduce the bill in the House. More recent press coverage provides context for the discussion today, in the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and Vox. Harms that have hindered the economic progress and well-being of other groups in the U.S., such as Native Americans, may also warrant investigation to ensure an equitable system of economic security.

The U.S. has previously awarded reparations to a racial group economically disadvantaged by unfair and illegal government policy. In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an order requiring the internment of 77,000 Japanese American citizens and 43,000 legal and illegal resident aliens in detention camps. The last camp was closed in January 1946. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which officially apologized on behalf of the U.S. government for the internment and authorized a tax-free payment of $20,000—the equivalent to $44,000 in 2020—to each former internee who was still alive when the act was passed.⁴⁰⁶The language in Public Law 100-383 “Civil Liberties Act of 1987” begins by stating: “The purposes of this Act are to—(1) acknowledge the fundamental injustice of the evacuation, relocation, and internment of United States citizens and permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry during World War II; (2) apologize on behalf of the people of the United States for the evacuation, relocation, and internment of such citizens and permanent resident aliens…” At that time, an estimated 60,000 of the 120,000 people interned during World War II were still alive. A total of 82,219 citizens and legal residents received redress. The statute authorizing the payments was enacted based on recommendations of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC).⁴⁰⁷See the New York Times’ coverage of the vote and the Densho Encyclopedia’s summary for more information about the act.  In 2018 in Trump v. Hawaii, in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the travel ban aimed at certain nations, the Court took the occasion to overrule its decision in Korematsu v. United States, which had upheld the Roosevelt internment order.

Nearly 45 million immigrants lived in the U.S. in 2019; 11 million were estimated to be undocumented.⁴⁰⁸The Migration Policy Institute maintains a Frequently Asked Questions page with links to further reports and discussions of data, immigration in the U.S., and the number of immigrants in the U.S. The Department of Homeland Security has its own data page. The Pew Research Center produces an annual statistical portrait of immigrants in the U.S. Much misunderstanding and misinformation exist about undocumented immigrants. The legal status of about half of undocumented immigrants is a result of overstayed visas, rather than illegal border crossings,⁴⁰⁹This statement was fact checked by Politifact; see Overstayed Visas (fact checking Rep. Kevin McCarthy). All fact checks by Politifact on statements about immigration can be found on its webpage., and many Americans support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.⁴¹⁰Both Gallup and the Pew Research Center perennially poll Americans about their views on immigration and components of immigration policy. In a Gallup poll placed January 21-27, 2019, 34 percent of Americans said they strongly favor and 47 percent favor “allowing immigrants living in the U.S. illegally the chance to become U.S. citizens if they meet certain requirements over a period of time.” In a Pew poll placed June 4-20, 74 percent of Americans said they favor “Congress passing a law granting permanent legal status to immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally when they were children.” The Bipartisan Policy Center published similar findings in in The New Middle on Immigration. President Biden has a proposed a path to citizenship, a policy that some argue would have dividends for the economy.⁴¹¹4 Myths about How Immigrants Affect the U.S. Economy from PBS gives an overview of the economic contribution of immigrants. The positive impact immigrants provide to the economy, even if they at one point need some form of social assistance, is explained in Immigrants Contribute Greatly to U.S. Economy, Despite Administration’s “Public Charge” Rule Rationale (CBPP). More information about why immigration is good for the U.S. can be found at the George W. Bush Presidential Institute and outlined in this essay, Benefits of Immigration Outweigh the Cost. In addition, the Bipartisan Policy Center has a large research portfolio on immigration policy in the U.S., including Immigrants and Public Benefits. More important, citizenship would ensure that a vast majority of currently undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are granted access to the support systems in place that, ideally, ensure equal treatment under the law and a base standard of living. One impact, for example, would be receipt of Social Security benefits and, therefore, improved economic security in the event of old age, disability, or death.⁴¹²Goss et al. 2013 estimate the net impact of “unauthorized immigrants” on the Social Security Trust Funds in 2010 to be an increase in reserves of $12 billion, with $13 billion paid in taxes and $1 billion paid out in benefits

1. Explore creating a path to citizenship based on length of stay, year of entry, work history, and criminal record. The last policy that resulted in “legalization” of undocumented immigrants, which is sometimes referred to as “amnesty,” was in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA).⁴¹³The Migration Policy Institute has a history of IRCA and two summaries of potential lessons from IRCA, IRCA in Retrospect and Will Immigration Reform Ever Succeed Again? A separate report from the Urban Institute reviews the lessons from IRCA but considers how the population of undocumented immigrants has changed since 1986. It granted a path to citizenship with proof that the individuals had entered before 1982 (and therefore did not come to the country as a result of the policy). This approach may serve as a model for future path-to-citizenship legislation.