Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health

Population Health Research Brief Series

How Does the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Impact Time Spent Assisting Adults?

Anna Wiersma Strauss

March 2025

Anna Wiersma Strauss

Public Administration & International Affairs Department

Lerner Center Population Health Research Brief Series

United States

Abstract

Unpaid caregiving for adults is crucial to maintaining health, independence, and well-being at older ages, and serves as a cornerstone of the U.S. healthcare system.

In their working years, caregivers potentially face trade-offs between unpaid caregiving and paid work. Poor households face more costly tradeoffs between paid work and caregiving because the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) – one of the nation’s largest antipoverty programs for families with children – requires recipients to work and provides benefits based on the level of earnings.

This brief summarizes findings from a study that examines the effect of the EITC on unpaid caregiving for adults. The author finds that in response to more generous EITC benefits, younger recipients increase their time spent on paid work and maintain their time spent assisting adults, while older recipients maintain their time spent on paid work and increase their time spent assisting their parents.

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