Benefits and work

Benefit Cliffs by State

Where a raise leaves a working household with less, in every state, for 15 kinds of household.

By Oren Ben-Joseph · Rules checked Oct 29, 2026

Adults
Children
Who works

Counts SNAP, WIC, school meals and health coverage, which most eligible families get.

Programs counted
SNAP
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps).
TANF
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: cash aid. About 1 in 5 families with children in poverty got it in 2023.
WIC
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.
Child care
A subsidy. About 1 in 6 children eligible under federal rules got one in 2022.
Housing voucher
Rental help. About 1 in 4 eligible households gets it.

Taxes and credits always count. TANF, child care and housing aid reach a minority of the families they are meant for, so the typical family leaves them out. Each term is defined below the charts.

Across the 50 states and DC

For the household and programs chosen above. Dollar figures are for the middle place: half are higher, half lower. The state picked below does not change these.

Where a raise can backfire

—

Places where earning more can leave this household with less.

Biggest loss from a raise

—

The most a raise can cost this household in a year.

Biggest loss at lower pay

—

The same, for drops that start under twice the poverty line.

Raise to come out ahead

—

How much more a year the household must earn to be better off than before the biggest drop.

Usually caused by

—

The program behind the biggest drop in the most places.

Worst place

—

—

What counts. Wages after taxes and credits, plus each program at its value: food and cash aid as paid, health coverage at the benchmark marketplace premium it saves (no one has an employer plan), child care aid at the local price less a —% copay (without it, the family pays the full price). Every earner works full time. Figures are a model's, rounded to the dollar, not a family's budget.

What a raise does

Yearly resources at each level of earnings. Shaded bands are worse-off zones. Move over the chart, or select it and use the arrow keys, for the breakdown.

      Worse-off zones in every state

      Each bar runs from where a raise starts to cost the household money to where it gets back to even, colored by the main cause, for each state's three deepest zones. States are sorted by their deepest drop. Each state's figures rest on one county's rent and on state child care prices, so treat states close together as tied. Select one to open it above.

        Show as a table

        Definitions

        Key terms
        Benefit cliff
        An income point where one more dollar of earnings ends a benefit outright, or cuts it by much more than a dollar.
        Worse-off zone
        A stretch of earnings where the household has less in total resources than it had at a lower level of earnings. It starts where resources first fall, usually at a cliff, and ends where wages catch up. Zones under $— a year are ignored.
        Deepest drop
        The most a zone takes away: the gap between resources just before the cliff and the lowest point inside the zone, per year.
        Raise needed, back to even
        How much more the household must earn, past the cliff, to regain the resources it had just before it. "Back to even" is that level of earnings.
        Main cause
        The program whose loss accounts for most of the drop. "Several programs phasing out at once" means no single program explains half of it: SNAP, tax credits, taxes, and copays each take a share of every extra dollar until together they pass 100%. "Taxes and credits" means rising taxes and shrinking tax credits explain most of it. Some of those zones start with a jump in state taxes, usually a state credit that ends at a cliff; that happens in —. The rest are the federal and state Earned Income Tax Credits phasing out on top of other programs, which is the only kind in —.
        Total resources
        Yearly wages, minus payroll and income taxes, plus refundable credits, plus the value of each program counted. Expenses that do not change with income, like food or rent, are left out because they do not move where a cliff falls.
        Poverty line
        The HHS poverty guideline: $— for one person, $— for two, $— for three and $— for four in —, higher in Alaska and Hawaii. Most limits are a percent of it.
        State median income
        The middle income of a family of four in the state, from HHS, scaled by federal factors for other sizes. Child care limits are set as a percent of it.
        Hourly equivalent
        Yearly earnings divided by 2,080 hours, one full-time job. Where two adults work, earnings are split evenly between them, so the hourly figure is each one's pay.
        Programs, and how each is valued
        SNAP
        The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: federal food benefits on an EBT card. Gross income must be under 130% of the poverty line, or up to 200% in states using broad categorical eligibility. The benefit is the maximum ($— a month for three since Oct 2026) minus 30% of net income after the standard deduction and deductions for earnings, child care and rent. Valued at the yearly benefit.
        TANF
        Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: monthly cash aid run by each state with a federal block grant. Income limits are usually far below the poverty line and vary widely. Valued at the yearly payment. Time limits are not modeled, and work rules count as met.
        WIC
        The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children: food packages and nutrition help for pregnant and postpartum women, infants and children under 5, for incomes up to 185% of the poverty line, and at any income for a child on Medicaid, so in many states WIC ends where children's Medicaid does. Valued at the average package cost for the household's young child (food packages at 2018 costs, the fruit and vegetable benefit at today's value).
        School meals
        Free school breakfast and lunch for children under 130% of the poverty line, reduced-price under 185%. — give every child free meals, and — free breakfast, so there the benefit continues at every income. Valued at the federal rate for a free or reduced-price meal above the rate for a paid meal, over the school year, for school-age children.
        Health coverage
        Medicaid for adults (to 138% of the poverty line in — states and DC, far lower or none in the other —), Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for children (to a median of —%), and Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits for marketplace plans, which end above 400% of the poverty line in —. Valued as the benchmark silver premium it saves: the full premium for anyone on Medicaid or CHIP, plus the ACA credit for anyone on the marketplace. An adult in the coverage gap, under the poverty line in a state that did not expand Medicaid and so with neither Medicaid nor a credit, is counted as uninsured. Deductibles and copays are not counted, and no one is assumed to have an employer plan.
        Child care
        Subsidies funded mainly by the federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF). States set an entry limit, as a share of state median income or of the poverty line, and let enrolled families stay until a higher exit point, up to —% of state median income. Modeled for a family already enrolled: worth the local price of care minus a copay of —% of income, ending at the exit point. The federal cap of 7% on copays was removed on Jul 13, 2026, so states now set copays themselves. The model keeps —% as an assumption, not any state's schedule. Off in the typical-family view because only about 1 in 6 children eligible under federal rules gets a subsidy, and many states have waiting lists. Waiting lists are not modeled.
        Housing voucher
        The Housing Choice Voucher: the household pays about 30% of adjusted income toward rent and the voucher covers the rest, up to the local payment standard. Only about 1 in 4 eligible households gets federal rental help, so it is off in the typical-family view. Valued at the yearly voucher payment.
        Taxes and credits
        Always counted: Social Security and Medicare payroll tax (—%), federal and state income tax, the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (up to $— for two children in —), the Child Tax Credit ($— a child, up to $— refundable), the child and dependent care credit, and state credits.
        Households
        Fifteen households
        One or two adults, with one earner or two, and zero to four children. Adults are 30.
        The children
        The same children throughout: one child is 4; two are 4 and 8; three are 4, 8 and 11; four are 2, 4, 8 and 11. A child under 5 can get WIC; the 8- and 11-year-olds are in school.
        Single adult, single parent
        One adult. A single parent works, so the children need care while they do. Most states that did not expand Medicaid do not cover a single adult without children at any income.
        Two parents, both working
        Married, filing jointly, with earnings split evenly. Both work, so the children need care while they do; with four children, two are in full-time care (the 2-year-old is priced at the preschool rate).
        Two parents, one earner
        The same family with one parent at home, so no child care subsidy.
        Two adults, no children
        Married, filing jointly, with one earner or two. With one earner, the adult at home has no children to care for, so SNAP's time limit leaves them out and the household gets SNAP for one.
        All households
        Rent at the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) fair market rent in the state's most populous county, for 1 bedroom (no children), 2 (one or two children) or 3 (three or four children). Every earner works full time, 40 hours a week, so work rules are met. Wages are the only income, and there is no disability, savings or employer health plan.