WISCONSIN’S POLICY CHOICES IMPACT FAMILY RESOURCES

A state’s policy choices do not operate in isolation from one another. Instead, they interact to provide critical resources and create a system of support of varying generosity for parents and children. The Policy Impact Calculator simulates the level of annual resources available to a stylized, working family and allows us to compare how state policy choices impact the variation in resources of this same family across all states.

In this simulation, the family consists of a single parent with an infant and toddler, who works full time at a minimum wage job, takes 12 weeks of leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act with benefits from paid family leave if available, and uses a subsidy to enroll their two children in center-based child care that charges the equal access target rate (which is the 75^th percentile of the state’s market rate survey).

The figure below combines a state’s minimum wage, paid family leave, out-of-pocket child care expenses, federal nutrition benefits, and federal and state income taxes and credits to illustrate the level of resources available to this stylized family in your state.

We rank states from 1 (most resources) to 51 (fewest resources). In 2024, Colorado ranks first; the working parent has over $53,000 in annual resources to provide for their family. Idaho ranks last; the same working parent has less than $21,000 in annual resources, because of a low minimum wage and high out-of-pocket child care expenses in the state.