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February 11, 2016

Secondary earners in low-income families, usually the mother, face punishingly high tax burdens, according to the latest report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “The High Cost of Getting Ahead: How Effective Tax Rates Affect Work Decisions by Lower-Income Families,” author Alexandre Laurin finds that various federal and provincial government benefit programs, once they are clawed back with income, act like hidden tax rates, reducing the gains from work. 

Alexandre Laurin

Alexandre is the Director of Research and leads the fiscal policy program and the pension policy program at the C.D. Howe Institute. He joined the C.D. Howe Institute in 2008 and became Director of Research in 2014. From 1999 to 2008, Mr.