Poverty and Income Security

Numerous federal programs and policies aim to reduce poverty, alleviate some of poverty's adverse consequences, enhance the security of people’s incomes, and affect the distribution of income and economic well-being. CBO provides cost estimates for legislative proposals related to those programs and policies. The agency also conducts in-depth analyses of the budgetary and other effects of those programs and policies and of options for changing them. (A separate page on Social Security provides additional information on CBO’s work in that area.)

Report
Options for Reducing the Deficit, 2023 to 2032--Volume I: Larger Reductions
December 7, 2022
CBO issues a volume describing 17 policy options that would each reduce the federal budget deficit by more than $300 billion over the next 10 years or, in the case of Social Security options, have a comparably large effect in later decades.
Report
Options for Reducing the Deficit, 2023 to 2032--Volume II: Smaller Reductions
December 7, 2022
CBO issues a volume that contains short descriptions of 59 policy options that would each reduce the federal budget deficit by less than $300 billion over the next 10 years.
Report
The Distribution of Household Income, 2019
November 15, 2022
CBO regularly analyzes the distribution of income in the United States and how it has changed over time. This report presents the distributions of household income, means-tested transfers, and federal taxes between 1979 and 2019.
Interactive
How Increasing the Federal Minimum Wage Could Affect Employment and Family Income
August 18, 2022
This interactive tool, updated in August 2022, allows users to explore how various policies to increase the federal minimum wage would affect earnings, employment, family income, and poverty.
Report
Work Requirements and Work Supports for Recipients of Means-Tested Benefits
June 9, 2022
CBO analyzes the effects of work requirements and work supports on employment and income of participants in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and Medicaid.
Report
The Effects on Employment and Family Income of Increasing the Federal Minimum Wage
July 8, 2019
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour for most workers. In this report, CBO examines how increasing the federal minimum wage to $10, $12, or $15 per hour by 2025 would affect employment and family income.