The Federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is one of the best tools we have to help struggling working families, but it leaves out millions of low-wage workers not raising children. Congress should expand the EITC for these workers so they can provide themselves with life's essentials and have a shot at a brighter future. Doing so would benefit close to a million Floridians who work hard at their jobs but still struggle everyday to ends meet on low wages.

The recently released 2015 census data on income and poverty shows that the EITC and the refundable portion of the Child Tax Credit have lifted 9.2 million Americans out of poverty.  There are, however, two problems with the EITC.  The tax credit is completely unavailable to millions of low-wage workers under the age of 25 who are not raising children. And the workers not raising children who are over the age of 25 and therefore eligible for the EITC don't receive enough to offset their income and payroll taxes. As a result, they are left with too little take-home pay to meet their basic needs.  They are quite literally taxed into, or pushed deeper into, poverty.


Our senators and Congress members should ensure that no working American is taxed into poverty.  They can do this by passing legislation to raise the maximum EITC amount for workers not raising children and extending the credit to young workers starting at age 21.

This is a common-sense solution that reflects widely shared American values of personal responsibility, hard work, and fairness. The EITC gets and keeps people working. Expanding the EITC to include workers not raising children will help returning veterans, hospitality workers, farm workers, home health aides, teaching assistants, janitors, salespeople and other low-income workers keep more of what they earn and pay for their basic needs.

Most policymakers agree that no American who works hard at a job should be unable to make ends meet. That's why the EITC has enjoyed bipartisan support continuously since its initial enactment in 1975. And just last year, Democrats and Republicans came together to save key provisions of the EITC from expiring.

This year, President Obama and Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan have nearly identical proposals to expand the EITC to low-wage workers who are not raising children. Their proposals would benefit almost a million struggling workers here in Florida according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Tax Analysis. A more robust proposal from Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts would benefit 1.25 million Floridians. We ask citizens to urge President-elect Trump and the new Congressional leadership teams to take these proposals into consideration as a first order of business in 2017.

These proposals would benefit a diverse group of Floridians including working parents who don't live under the same roof as their kids but still want very much to provide for them and veterans and young workers just getting started whose low wages barely cover cost of food, a roof over their heads, and transportation to get to their jobs.

Expanding the EITC to include workers like these would also serve to pump money into Florida's communities. Recipients can take the money they get back and spend it at businesses where they live, paying for basic needs like food, rent, or even a down payment on a more reliable car to get them to and from work.

The Earned Income Tax Credit is a tremendous tool for helping Floridians struggling to make ends meet. But it could be doing so much more for those currently left out. Congress should ensure that no working American is taxed into poverty, and we call on our U.S. senators and Congress members to do so by expanding the EITC to cover low-wage workers not raising children and young workers starting at age 21.

Joseph Pennisi is executive director of the Florida Policy Institute in Lake Mary.