SEATTLE – Ahead of the 2020 legislative session, a diverse coalition is calling on state lawmakers to fund a working-class tax break.

The Working Families Tax Credit, the Evergreen State's version of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, would provide an average income boost of $350, mainly for people making less than $51,000 a year.

Brittany Williams, an executive board member for the Service Industry Employees Union 775, a home-care providers' union, said most families would use the extra income to pay bills. In her case, that means medical expenses.

"I need dental work done and, even though I do have dental insurance, because of the work that I need done, it just doesn't cover it," she said. "And so, I work through the pain, and I live with that pain with my mouth issue every day and I just don't complain about it to anybody. I make sure my children are taken care of."

The Working Families Tax Credit already has passed in Washington state but has yet to be funded. It's estimated the measure would affect about 967,000 households. Supporters include Moms Rising, United Way of King County and the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

At a roundtable this week in support of the state tax credit, U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said she also is working on federal legislation. Jayapal is co-sponsoring the "Working Families Tax Relief Act" and the "Building Our Opportunities to Survive and Thrive Act," which would provide up to $3,000 in tax credits for individuals and $6,000 for married couples. She said the 2017 Republican tax cut isn't helping working families, and contended that wealthy Americans can afford to pay more.

"When three people in the United States of America - two of whom live in our state - have the same combined wealth as 160 million Americans across the country," she said, "we know that that does not provide the opportunity for everyone to have a fair and decent life, and just to make ends meet."

The 60-day state legislative session begins Jan. 13. state Sen. Joe Nguyen, D-West Seattle, and Rep. Debra Entenman, D-Kent, are the primary sponsors of the Working Families Tax Credit bill. Its text is online at apps.leg.wa.gov.

West Virginia families can expect a smaller federal Child Tax Credit this year, and no more advance monthly payments now that the Build Back Better Act has hit a dead end in Congress.

Advocates say the extra cash helped alleviate burdens on parents recovering from a substance-use disorder.

JoAnna Vance, a community organizer for the Recovery Advocacy Project based in Beckley and a parent in long-term recovery from substance use disorder, explained the extra income helped stabilize individuals working to rebuild their lives and care for their children.

"Absolutely the child tax credit has been beneficial to families in West Virginia, specifically those in recovery and early recovery," Vance asserted. "To just have one less stressor off of their life."

Last year, Congress temporarily expanded the child tax credit to more than 35 million families, up to $3,600 per child. Studies showed most households used the money to buy food and pay for other basic necessities. Opponents say the $2 trillion Build Back Better Act is too costly.

Vance also pointed out many households across the state are struggling with winter expenses.

"We know that in January is when all of the electric bills and the gas bills spike," Vance noted. "It's when it snows, and you need tires or something like that for your vehicle."

She emphasized West Virginia Families are hurting.

"We need child care, we need jobs, we need internet, we need transportation," Vance outlined. "If they're not going to pass the Build Back Better, then what are they going to do?"

In the journal Health Affairs, researchers argued the expanded Child Tax Credit and other federal funding measures outlined in the Build Back Better Act could help reduce addiction in communities by reducing economic challenges for families that may directly or indirectly contribute to substance use.

The start of the new year saw a number of states boost their minimum wage, but not North Dakota. Labor leaders say it's remained at $7.25 an hour for far too long, especially with neighboring states continuing to go higher.

South Dakota, Montana and Minnesota rang in the new year with higher minimum wages, with those increases tied to inflation.

Kooper Caraway, president of the South Dakota Federation of Labor, said not only does it put more money in the hands of workers and their families, but it helps to keep jobs filled.

"Since the minimum wage was increased and tied to inflation, South Dakota's always had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country," Caraway observed. "And the good thing is that we also have a robust labor movement, and that robust labor movement is raising wages much higher than the minimum wage."

South Dakota's latest increase, the result of a voter-approved measure in 2014, brought its wage to $9.95 an hour.

In North Dakota, worker advocates fear residents will abandon the state, even with jobs available, because the lower threshold will make it harder to survive. Last year, North Dakota lawmakers rejected a proposed hike, with concerns raised about the impact on businesses.

Landis Larson, president of the North Dakota AFL-CIO, said it is frustrating cost-of-living measures are similar in the four-state region. He argued it gives North Dakota policymakers no excuse for not taking action.

"They really want to do their best to make a friendly business climate, but they forget about the worker climate," Larson asserted. "It's a two-way street."

Rep. LaurieBeth Hager, D-Fargo, was behind last year's plan to increase North Dakota's minimum wage, and said being far behind other states is especially troubling right now.

"When you look at the increases in housing costs, and fuel costs and grocery costs, all of those things are exponentially rising, and the minimum wage has just bottomed out," Hager stated.

Hager added a more likely scenario in which North Dakota increases its minimum wage is by taking it to the voters, but other supporters say such a plan has to be tied to inflation.

An annual pay raise has kicked-in for Ohio's minimum-wage workers, who will now earn $9.30 per hour, about $2 more than the federal minimum wage.

The $0.50 hourly increase is the largest since 2006, when a ballot initiative indexed the minimum wage to inflation.

Hannah Halbert, executive director of Policy Matters Ohio, noted had Congress done the same when it set the federal minimum wage in 1968, it would now be worth about $13 an hour, and she pointed out $9.30 amounts to just over $19,000 annually for a full-time worker.

"That's still more than $2,000 under the poverty guidelines for a family of three," Halbert explained. "Even if they're working full time, playing by the rules, doing what they can, they're still not going to be able to break that poverty threshold."

Ohio is among nine states where a 2022 minimum-wage increase is tied to the cost of living. California's hit $15 Jan. 1, as part of an incremental increase. Eight other states are also in the process of incrementally raising their minimum-wage amounts to $15 an hour.

According to Policy Matters Ohio, raising Ohio's minimum hourly wage to $15 by 2026 would benefit 1.6 million workers. Halbert is convinced it would help the overall economy and reduce income inequality.

"Thirty-six percent of working women in Ohio would see a pay increase, and 44% of Black working Ohioans would also see an increase," Halbert outlined. "Raising the wage really does help clear up some of these drivers of inequality in the low-wage system."

Halbert emphasized the impact of the pandemic on job market data makes it difficult to determine just how many Ohioans are affected by the 2022 increase. Some 84,000 workers benefited from a $0.15 minimum-wage adjustment in 2019.

Reporting by Ohio News Connection in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.