- Home
- /
- Policy Impact Calculator
Policy Impact Calculator
See How State Policy Choices Affect Working Families
Explore our new interactive calculator to see how wages, paid leave, nutrition programs, child care subsidies, and tax credits shape the financial resources available to families with young children—state by state. See how your state ranks, see comparisons over time and across states, and simulate policy changes.
MEET LINA
Lina is a single mother raising an infant and toddler.
- She works full time, year-round, earning her state’s minimum wage.
- She receives all benefits she is eligible for and files taxes each year.
- Lina took 12 weeks of leave after her baby was born.
- While at work, she sends her children to center-based child care priced at the 75th percentile of the state’s market rate.
What level of resources does Lina have to support her family in your state?
The newly interactive Policy Impact Calculator compares the level of resources available to a full-time working family like Lina’s. It highlights the substantial variation in support for working families across states during the critical prenatal-to-3 period, driven by state policy choices.
WHAT IS THE POLICY IMPACT CALCULATOR?
The Policy Impact Calculator combines state and federal policies to calculate the total resources available to a working parent with young children across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It accounts for:
- State minimum wage
- Paid family and medical leave (PFML)
- Child care subsidies
- Federal nutrition programs, including SNAP and WIC
- Federal and state income taxes and credits, including the CTC and EITC
- Federal and state payroll deductions (FICA and PFML premiums)
HOW DOES YOUR STATE MEASURE UP?
Use the calculator to:
- Explore how your state ranks on the Policy Impact Calculator using annual data, starting in 2020.
- Explore how federal and state policy choices interact to reach Lina’s total resources. See which policies have the biggest impact on family resources.
- See comparisons over time and across states and simulate policy changes to see their potential impact.
WHY STATE POLICY CHOICES MATTER
When the evidence-based Roadmap policies and strategies for each state are combined, the level of resources a working family has varies substantially. In 2025, variation in resources across states ranged from more than $56,000 per year in Colorado to just under $21,000 in North Carolina—a striking difference driven by state decisions. These resources play a critical role in the financial support parents have to care for their children, and ultimately in the trajectory of child health and wellbeing from the youngest years to adulthood. Even small differences make a difference in families’ lives. For example, an additional $1,000 a year could cover over 7 weeks of groceries for a family of three.
Looking for More Information?
If you’re Interested in learning more about the Policy Impact Calculator, have questions about the data, or want additional data access, we would love to hear from you! Please direct any comments, questions, or corrections through our online form, available here: https://pn3policy.org/data-support-and-analysis/.
In the future, the Policy Impact Calculator will continue to expand. Watch this page for notes on data updates and additional features or sign up for our email list.
How Else Can We Support You?
Beyond this tool, our team partners with states to help make data-driven decisions for infants, toddlers, and their families, including data collection and analysis, benefit-cost analyses, and guidance on building data dashboards. Submit this form for more information.
For detailed methodology and assumptions behind the Policy Impact Calculator, please see Methods and Sources.
