Economic Security & Prosperity
The economy should work for everyone, not just a select few. But for New Mexicans who lack job skills and education, and work in low-wage jobs with little hope for advancement, economic security is just a dream. Long-term economic prosperity involves promoting economic and workforce development opportunities for all New Mexicans, as well as supporting access to adequate wage and work supports for those in crisis and those who are unable to work.
Featured Content
From Poverty to Prosperity: How Tax Credits Impact Child Poverty and Well-being
The second in a series of reports on how public benefits programs and tax credits impact poverty in New Mexico, this looks at how state and federal tax credits improve child and family well-being, including how many families benefit and how much money is refunded to them.
From Poverty to Prosperity: Understanding the Impact of Income Supports in the Data
A new measure from the Census gives us a better picture of how anti-poverty programs in New Mexico are benefitting our families and children. The first in a series of reports on how public benefits programs and tax credits impact poverty in New Mexico, this tackles the various ways in which poverty is measured.
Guaranteed Income: Increasing Employment and Helping Families Thrive
Research shows that when people are given unrestricted cash payments — sometimes called guaranteed income (GI) — they pursue better jobs, complete educational or vocational training, and create stability for their families. This report (available in English and Spanish) looks at how a GI pilot program for immigrant families in New Mexico improved outcomes for participating families.
Recent Publications
2024 New Mexico KIDS COUNT Data Book
NM KIDS COUNT Data Book Child well-being continues improving in New Mexico, thanks to investments by our lawmakers. This annual report provides data on numerous child well-being indicators related to economic security, education, health, and family and community, and includes policy solutions. (State-, county-, tribal- and school district-level data on child well-being.)
From Poverty to Prosperity: How Tax Credits Impact Child Poverty and Well-being
Report The second in the "From Poverty to Prosperity" series, this report looks at how refundable tax credits help families and children, especially those earning low incomes. (State-level data on several tax credits impacting families as well as tax incidence by income group.)
Recent Blog Posts
New Mexico Voices for Children Releases 2024 New Mexico KIDS COUNT Data Book
January 21, 2025 As child advocates, we strive for [...]
Let’s Use Childcare Assistance to Lift the Workers Out of Poverty Too
El Semanario--While it’s great to know that the expansion of universal child care has such a dramatic effect on lowering poverty in New Mexico for the children and families who receive the program, there is one significant way in which the CA program falls short: wages for child care and other early care and education (ECE) workers remain unacceptably low. If we can use our CA program to lift kids and families out of poverty, why don’t we use it to lift the people who provide that care out of poverty as well?
Recent News Coverage
Let’s Use Childcare Assistance to Lift the Workers Out of Poverty Too
El Semanario--While it’s great to know that the expansion of universal child care has such a dramatic effect on lowering poverty in New Mexico for the children and families who receive the program, there is one significant way in which the CA program falls short: wages for child care and other early care and education (ECE) workers remain unacceptably low. If we can use our CA program to lift kids and families out of poverty, why don’t we use it to lift the people who provide that care out of poverty as well?
‘Not only draconian… immoral’: NM legislators, advocates talk Trump deportation plans
NM Political Report--Chavero cited the report “Essential but Excluded” that was completed during the pandemic by New Mexico Voices for Children and other advocacy groups. “We have a robust immigrants’ rights movement in New Mexico,” Chavero said. “Bigger and stronger than we were eight years ago during the first Trump administration.”
Programs, Coalitions & Networks
Economic Relief Working Group A coalition of several grassroots and advocacy organizations – many of them focused on immigrant rights – ERWG was formed in 2020 initially to secure pandemic relief for those New Mexicans who did not qualify for federal relief due to their immigration status. ERWG worked on getting an accurate 2020 Census count for the state, and has also worked on wages, voting rights, tax credits and child care assistance, and currently runs a guarantied basic income (GBI) pilot project for families with mixed immigration status.
New Mexico Fairness Project A coalition of more than 30 organizations, NMFP works to ensure that New Mexico collects tax revenue in a way that is equitable and sustainable, and that is adequate to fund the programs, services, and infrastructure that New Mexico’s children, families, communities, and businesses rely upon. Run by NM Voices, NMFP also fights for fair wages and working conditions, and other issues central to family economic security.
Economic Analysis and Research Network EARN is a program of the Economic Policy Institute for research, policy, and advocacy organizations across the nation fighting for an economy that works for everyone. EARN advances an inclusive, worker-centered economy through state and local policy change, rigorous research, and collaboration between researchers, advocates, and community groups across the country.
State Revenue Alliance A network of state-based community, labor, and policy advocates from across the country, SRA works with on-the-ground advocates, giving them the strategic resources they need to build intersectional, people-powered campaigns that transform revenue policy – ensuring our states fully fund communities and that corporations and the ultra rich pay what they owe.
New Mexico Civic Engagement Table A project of the Center for Civic Policy, NMCET unifies more than 40 diverse organizations from different sectors around a common agenda to strengthen our democracy. Among its issues are economic justice, early childhood education, climate justice, immigration reform, and economic development.
Resources
A Basic Family Budget Calculator is an important tool in determining if a family lives in poverty, because the system currently in place to do that is completely outdated.
Federal poverty guidelines, which dictate whether a family is eligible to receive assistance such as Medicaid and Food Stamps, are tied to a formula that was created in the 1960s. It was based on what the typical family spent on groceries because that was a family’s biggest expense at the time. Today, necessities like housing, childcare and health care take up a far greater share of most family incomes than groceries. Not only do the guidelines not take these changes into account, they do not take into account regional differences in the cost of living.
Because the federal guidelines are so inaccurate, families are generally considered low-income when they earn up to twice (or 200 percent) the poverty level. This makes up for some shortfalls in the guidelines, but they are still nowhere near as accurate as a Basic Family Budget.
- Click here to find out the minimum amount families need to earn in order to live at a basic, no-frills level in New Mexico’s cities and counties