2020

Monthly Series
The ALICE Essentials Index: Guiding Social Policy Decisions with Sound Data

2:00 pm EST
Webinar

Webinar recordings and presentations are available to Members.

When policymakers lack the right tools for the job, policy suffers. Official economic markers do not measure the realities that low-income families face: which essentials they need to live and work in the modern economy, and how the costs of those goods have changed over time. The ALICE measures help to fill this gap.

ALICE – Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed – households have income above the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) but not high enough to afford essentials in the communities where they live. In 2018, of the 121 million households in the U.S., 13% earned below the FPL, while another 29% — more than twice as many — were ALICE. The core of the problem is that the cost of household basics is higher than the wages of many common occupations, and the cost of household basics is rising faster than wages.

Please join Dan Treglia, PhD and Stephane Hoopes, PhD from United for ALICE to discuss the gaps in current measurements and policy, the economic picture revealed through the ALICE Threshold and the ALICE Essentials Index, and how policymakers can use this information to make robust and equitable social policy decisions.

Presenters:
Stephanie Hoopes, Ph.D., Director, United for ALICE
Dan Treglia, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow, United for ALICE