Julie Vogtman, Senior Counsel

Julie Vogtman is Senior Counsel for the Family Economic Security Program at the National Women’s Law Center. She works on a range of issues involving economic support for low-income women and their families, including minimum wage policies, unemployment benefits, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). She also contributes to the Center’s work on federal budget and tax policies, including implementation of the tax credit components of the Affordable Care Act.  Prior to joining the Center, Ms. Vogtman was an associate with Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, DC. She is a graduate of Furman University and Georgetown University Law Center.

Expert in: Family Support Programs, Federal Budget, Federal Tax Policy, Minimum Wage, Unemployment, Poverty & Income Support
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My Take

The Story Behind the Numbers: Poverty

Posted by
Julie Vogtman, Senior Counsel
Katherine Gallagher Robbins, Senior Policy Analyst
| Posted on: September 10, 2012 at 02:56 pm

This Wednesday, the Census Bureau will release new data on poverty, income, and health insurance in the U.S. in 2011. As we get ready to crunch numbers, we thought it would be helpful to take a deeper look at what these numbers tell us – and don’t tell us – about poverty. Here are a few FAQs on poverty and the Census Bureau data.

What does the poverty rate measure?

The poverty rate measures the percentage of the U.S. population with income below the federal poverty threshold, often referred to as the “poverty line,” for their family size (e.g., $22,811 in 2011 for a family of four with two kids). Income is calculated before taxes and includes only cash income such as earnings, pension/retirement income, Social Security, unemployment benefits, and child support payments.

What doesn’t the poverty rate measure?

A number of federal and state benefits that help support lower-income families are not counted as income in the official poverty measure. “Non-cash benefits” like food stamps (SNAP) and housing assistance, and tax benefits like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit, do not count as income for purposes of calculating the official poverty rate.

The official poverty measure also does not account for any expenditures, such as those on medical needs or child care, which can be very large for some families and leave them little income to meet other basic needs.

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Tags: Census Bureau and Census Data, Poverty, Family Tax Credits, Data on Poverty & Income, Poverty & Income Support | Add new comment

This Labor Day, Hardworking Women and Men Deserve a Raise

Posted by Julie Vogtman, Senior Counsel | Posted on: August 31, 2012 at 01:52 pm

A long holiday weekend is nearly upon us, and I’ll admit, my mind is wandering a bit today to non-work-related thoughts of beaches and barbecues. But before we all head off to celebrate a Labor Day free of labor, I thought it would be worthwhile to take a look at the origins of this end-of-summer tradition.

According to the Department of Labor, “Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.” The first Labor Day was celebrated on September 5, 1882, in New York City, and was organized by the Central Labor Union, which later urged labor organizations in other cities to celebrate an annual “workingmen’s holiday” on the first Monday in September.

Of course, today we recognize that it is not only “workingmen,” but also millions of working women who have made great contributions “to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.”  After decades of historic strides, women now make up about half of the U.S. workforce, and have entered into fields from manufacturing to medicine in numbers that many would not have imagined a generation ago.

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Tags: Economy, Equal Pay, Fair Minimum Wage Act, Jobs, Wage Gap, Minimum Wage, Data on Poverty & Income, Unemployment, Poverty & Income Support | 1 comment

A Vacation Education on the Welfare Debate

Posted by Julie Vogtman, Senior Counsel | Posted on: August 10, 2012 at 11:20 am

Ah, August. Congress is out, traffic is a (relative) breeze, and I’m feeling refreshed after a relaxing family vacation that involved lots of lazy beach time and zero talk of what was happening back at the office.

…Well, maybe not zero. One thing I’ve found about devoting your career to really interesting women’s issues is that it’s not unusual for conversations with friends and family to wind up delving into those very same issues. Especially if, say, I’m in a house with 20 or so family members from across the country who want to know more about what’s going on in Washington.  

My family is full of bright, interesting people who are pretty on top of current events and have a range of perspectives on the issues. Previous gatherings have involved talk of taxes, health care policy, climate change, and the need to reform agricultural practices. This year, the subject of welfare came up – and so did some misinformation about a recent proposal from the Obama administration to allow states to waive certain work participation requirements under the federal welfare program (known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF).

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Tags: Department of Health and Human Services, Family Support Programs, President Obama & Obama Administration, TANF, Data on Poverty & Income, Poverty & Income Support | Add new comment

First Ladies – and How to Put Ladies First in the Budget Debates

Posted by
Julie Vogtman, Senior Counsel
Katherine Gallagher Robbins, Senior Policy Analyst
| Posted on: July 11, 2012 at 11:31 am

We had the privilege of going to the White House this week to hear President Obama deliver remarks on the economy and taxes. There were lots of pretty cool parts (including a peek at the portraits of the First Ladies!), but the real highlight was the President’s speech exhorting Congress to end the Bush-era tax cuts for the richest two percent. Here’s why we think that is such a great idea:

We have a few thoughts on better ways to spend $1 trillion than on more tax breaks for the wealthy.

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Tags: Federal Budget, President Obama & Obama Administration, Taxes, Federal Tax Policy, Tax & Budget | Add new comment

NYT Op-Ed Gets It Right: “Home Care Workers Aren’t Just ‘Companions’”

Posted by Julie Vogtman, Senior Counsel | Posted on: July 03, 2012 at 03:19 pm

In case you (like many of us here at NWLC) have been too busy dealing with power outages and oppressive heat to keep up with the New York Times over the past few days, I wanted to flag for you a great op-ed from Sunday’s paper. In it, Professors Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein make a concise and compelling case for granting long overdue Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) protections – minimum wage and overtime premium pay – to home care workers.

You might recall that President Obama has also called for this policy change, and late last year, the Department of Labor (DOL) proposed a new rule that would extend FLSA protections to home care workers. Specifically, the proposed regulations would exclude these workers from the FLSA’s exemption for “companionship services.” To date, this exemption – which was intended to exempt casual caregivers, like babysitters, from FLSA requirements when the statute was expanded to cover domestic service workers in 1974 – has been inappropriately applied to the professional workers who provide the intensive care necessary for many elderly and ill adults to remain in their homes. As Boris and Klein observe, the home care workforce has exploded since the 1970s as the U.S. population has aged, and the “existing exemption mainly serves home-care franchises, an $84 billion industry that is one of the most profitable in the United States….[It] has allowed staffing agencies to avoid paying overtime [and] treated women who labored to support their families as if they were teenagers picking up some spending money.”

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Tags: Department of Labor, Home Care Work, Equal Pay and the Wage Gap | Add new comment