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Katherine Gallagher Robbins, Senior Policy Analyst

Katherine Gallagher Robbins

Katherine Gallagher Robbins is a Senior Policy Analyst for Family Economic Security at the National Women’s Law Center where she examines how tax and budget policies influence the financial stability and security of low-income women and families.  Before joining the Center in 2010, Ms. Gallagher Robbins worked as an organizer for the California Public Interest Research Group at the University of California, San Diego. She is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a graduate of the College of William and Mary.

My Take

Candy Crowley Is the First Woman Picked To Moderate a Presidential Debate Since 1992

Posted by Katherine Gallagher Robbins, Senior Policy Analyst | Posted on: August 14, 2012 at 12:36 pm

Women are underrepresented in both politics and the media – women account for only 17 percent of Congressional seats and only 40 percent of TV news and newspaper employees.

Luckily this fall one woman will play a key role in the political and media event of the year – the presidential election. Award-winning political reporter and talk show host Candy Crowley will moderate one of three presidential debates – the first time in 20 years that a woman will do so.

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H.R. 8: A Bill that Hurts Millions of Moms

Posted by Katherine Gallagher Robbins, Senior Policy Analyst | Posted on: July 31, 2012 at 02:11 pm

I’m at that time in life when lots of my friends are having kids. I’m thrilled for my friends - their kids are awesome and adorable. But one thing they’re not is cheap. And if Republicans have their way, kids are about to get even more expensive.

New analysis by the Tax Policy Center shows that the tax bill (H.R. 8) introduced by Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) (a bill virtually identical to S. 3414 which was introduced by Senate Republican leaders and rejected by a majority of the Senate last week) ends tax cuts for millions of hard-working families. In fact, more than one-third of all families with children and nearly three-quarters of low-income families with children (who make an average of $17,400 a year) would lose valuable tax benefits under Rep. Camp’s bill. The loss would be particularly hard for women who are the majority of low-income parents.

Wonder why so many families will lose out under Rep. Camp’s tax bill? It, like the bill introduced by Senate Republican leaders, would end tax cuts for low- and moderate-income families that were put into place by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009. The National Economic Council estimates that by letting these tax cuts expire:

  • 12 million families would lose an average of $800 from the elimination of the Child Tax Credit expansion.
  • 11 million families would lose an average of $1,100 from the repeal of the American Opportunity Tax Credit for college expenses.
  • 6 million families would lose an average of $500 from the elimination of improvements to the Earned Income Tax Credit.
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What would another $5,100 a year mean to you? To minimum wage earners, it would mean a lot!

Posted by Katherine Gallagher Robbins, Senior Policy Analyst | Posted on: July 24, 2012 at 09:34 am

Today, July 24th, marks three years since the last time the federal minimum wage increased. It currently stands at a measly $7.25 per hour, just $14,500 for people who work full time, year round. Rep. DeLauro (D-CT) and Rep. Braley (D-IA) and Senator Harkin (D-IA) have introduced legislation in the Rebuild America Act to raise the minimum wage to $9.80 over three years, providing full-time, year-round workers with a raise of $5,100 annually – nearly 35 percent. After that, the minimum wage would be indexed to inflation to maintain its value – a huge win for workers. This would be especially important to women workers who represent two-thirds of workers earning the federal minimum wage or less, including two-thirds of tipped workers who have a federal minimum cash wage of only $2.13.

So what would $5,100 mean each year for minimum wage workers?

For $5,100 you could get:

Four months of groceries;

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

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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What the Paycheck Fairness Act Would Do for Women, Families, and the Wage Gap

Posted by Katherine Gallagher Robbins, Senior Policy Analyst | Posted on: June 18, 2012 at 04:55 pm

Eduardo Porter’s article last week in The New York Times, Motherhood Still a Cause of Pay Inequality, has a good discussion of the gender wage gap – it highlights the slowed progress in closing the gap and discusses many of the issues that contribute to women’s lower pay including occupational segregation, caregiving responsibilities, and discrimination.

However, Porter gets it wrong when he says that passing the Paycheck Fairness Act, which failed to get a vote in the Senate last week, might actually increase women’s unemployment. As Fatima Goss Graves debunked this myth in our blog:

Opponents of the Paycheck Fairness Act complain that the bill will hurt the economy and increase unemployment among women. These are not new arguments when it comes to fair employment laws – in fact, some of these same arguments were made 50 years ago when the Equal Pay Act itself was passed.

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