Workin’ for a Living: The Minimum Wage, Earned Income Tax Credit & Workers Compensation

The minimum wage was enacted during the Great Depression but remains popular to this day. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) was enacted in the 1970s and enjoys bipartisan support. Though one provides a wage floor and the other needed tax credits, both programs are pillars of support for working families and individuals. This module provides information on the historical development of both policies, state and national features and functions, the importance, strengths, and limits of each policy, the intersection of each policy with the lived reality of low-income working households, and the overall impact each program has on rates of poverty. 

At the conclusion of this video series, participants will be able to:

  1. Understand minimum wage rates and the ways in which the minimum wage and the EITC function at the state and national levels.

  2. Compare and contrast the strengths and limits of each policy and the impact of each on low-income workers.

  3. Understand important elements of the Workers Compensation Program

  4. Apply a critical lens to how each policy: interacts with wage stagnation in the private market (structural barriers); functions as a critical part of the social welfare toolkit; helps promote economic justice.


* An extensive reference section is also available for download

Estimated Time to Complete video series: 1.5 hours (1.5 CE credits)

Note: All course content must be viewed and an evaluation completed before the CE certificate can be issued.

Price: $15

Course Curriculum

  • 1

    Workin’ for a Living: The Minimum Wage, Earned Income Tax Credit & Other Labor-Based Policies

    • Opening: Workin' for a Living

    • Frances Perkins: Unsung Heroine of the Minimum Wage

    • Minimum Wage Timeline

    • The Best of Times: The Minimum Wage in the 60s

    • 2023-2024 Minimum Wage Rates in the U.S. (with interactives)

    • The EITC: Anti-Poverty Rockstar

    • How the EITC Works

    • A Tale of Two Popular Programs

    • The 2022 EITC

    • The EITC Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic

    • The FMLA at 30

    • Ten Things You Should Know About the Workers Compensation Program

    • References

    • Evaluation

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About the instructor

Founder, OfCourse!

Miguel Ferguson

Hello, my name is Miguel Ferguson. My teaching career began at the high school level but for the last 20 years I have taught courses in Social Welfare Policy, Poverty, and Social Justice in leading schools of social work. I founded OfCourse! to make dynamic information on these topics accessible to students and busy instructors. OfCourse! content is engaging and up to date and each lesson comes with "Interactives" (drag-and-drop, fill-in-the-blank, drop-down menu choices, etc). OfCourse! materials are fun and engaging and designed to help busy teachers inform and inspire students with interactive and easy-to-use content. Dr. Ferguson is also the author of two popular books on the intersection of policy and community change ("Caught in the Storm" and "Navigating Policy & Practice in the Great Recession") and a graphic novel on the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War ("¡Brigadistas!").