Originally published in Deseret News.

While speaking at a joint Sutherland Institute/American Enterprise Institute event in Salt Lake City in 2023, AEI Senior Fellow Ian Rowe lauded Utah’s ongoing efforts to maintain and strengthen upward mobility.

He also suggested there is still room to improve.

Drawing from the book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, Rowe made this observation about companies that were able to continue moving toward excellence and applied it to Utah:

“These companies accepted the adjective of good, even if relative to their peers they could be hailed as great. So please don’t take the description of good as undervaluing what Utah has already accomplished. Take it as the mindset that there are always higher levels of greatness, and it is within your grasp.”

This “good to great” framing is the perfect theme with which to approach a conversation about improving upward mobility for Utahns who utilize government social safety net programs yet yearn for self-reliance through work.

In many ways Utah is already the envy of the nation when it comes to addressing poverty. A December 2023 ranking of all 50 states from the Archbridge Institute identifies Utah as having the best social mobility in the nation. The state’s unemployment rates and poverty rates are consistently low.

Leaders in numerous states are asking Congress for the ability to replicate Utah’s “one door” model, wherein the Utah Department of Workforce Services provides both temporary assistance and workforce development opportunities through the same state agency.

And the state of Utah has an established track record of continuous improvement in the administration of safety net programs, as evidenced by the years-long intergenerational poverty initiative, and ongoing proactive review and refinement of state-administered programs.

All of this positions Utah well to continue as a national leader in finding new ways to improve the prospects of families striving for self-reliance through work. It is essential that any discussion of refining the social safety net begins from the foundation of Utah’s unique advantages and strengths as a place of opportunity.

It is from this foundation that we must address challenges that still create obstacles for some on government assistance programs.

Chris Robinson is a single mother of two in Utah who strives to create a better life for her family. When she willingly picked up a little extra work at her job, an extra $20 on a single paycheck led to a roughly $600 decrease in medical benefits from the government assistance program she was participating in. It prompted her to rethink whether working to earn more was worth it.

Marcella Patiño, a fellow Utahn who also raises her three kids on her own, loves working as a nail tech because of the feeling that she is charting her own course to financial independence. She does not want to rely on government social safety net programs either, and she views work and career growth as the way to accomplish that independence. But Patiño has faced similar obstacles.

In recent years she stopped taking on additional clients — work that would have increased her salary and advanced her career — because she believed the additional earned income would trigger a disproportionately larger loss of food stamp benefits, a resource she and her children relied on.

There are impoverished families throughout the nation and here in Utah who feel discouraged from pursuing upward mobility through work, reacting to what they perceive as perverse incentives in the government safety net known as “benefits cliffs.”

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, these cliffs can occur when an increase in household income triggers a sudden and significant loss of government assistance that can actually make the family financially worse off, even after accounting for the additional income — thus creating a “cliff effect” — or it can effectively cancel out the new income, causing the family to “plateau.”

New survey data from Sutherland Institute and Lighthouse Research sheds light on the nature, scope and frequency of how this issue affects the economic decision-making of families on the social safety net in Utah, answering a crucial question: Are Utahns changing their economic behavior in response to what they understand to be benefits cliffs disincentives?

The results are both stark and encouraging.

Forty-three percent of respondents have at some point taken action that intentionally limited their household income in order to avoid losing government assistance. Twenty-six percent have lost government assistance due to earning too much, subsequently lost or quit their job, then re-enrolled in government programs. And 62% feel stuck in a low-income job and believe that earning more would trigger a loss in benefits that would make the additional earned income not worth it.

The fact that a majority of Utahns on government assistance have not actually taken economically limiting actions despite widespread perceptions of perverse incentives stands as a testament to three things: (1) the efficacy of the Utah Department of Workforce Services in helping struggling Utahns get back on their feet and move toward self-reliance, (2) the overall strength of Utah’s economy and (3) the hard work and determination of Utahns who use the safety net to get back on their feet.

Even so, the Sutherland/Lighthouse survey data shows there is room for improvement in how the state empowers these families who are eager to enjoy the blessings offered by Utah’s strong economy.

While America’s social safety net has done tremendous good for millions of Americans — including many Utahns — throughout its existence, the fact that some families experience unintended consequences that discourage work and opportunity for those on the margins of society is not just economically problematic, it is morally wrong.

Utah is uniquely positioned to be a national leader in further empowering safety net participants to feel confident pursuing work and opportunity, and to share those successes with leaders at the state and federal level throughout the nation.

Fortunately, Utah’s leaders have already demonstrated the track record and commitment to pursuing reforms that strengthen the American Dream for families hungry for self-reliance anchored to work. Now is the time to take the next step.