Business Leaders Call on Congress to Enhance the Child Tax Credit

Today, members of ReadyNation wrote a letter calling on Congress to support the bipartisan Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 to enhance the Child Tax Credit (CTC).

In their letter, the co-chairs of ReadyNation’s CEO Task Force call attention to the estimated $800 billion to $1.1 trillion annual cost of childhood poverty due to lost adult productivity, increased costs of crime, and increased health expenditures. The members make the case that decreasing child poverty is key to developing a future workforce able to compete in a global economy, and an enhanced CTC is a step toward that goal.

The proposed enhancement to the CTC in the American Families and Workers Act of 2024 could benefit the more than 15 million children whose families currently do not receive the full credit due to low incomes and potentially lift around 400,000 children out of poverty in the first year.

The letter is signed by ReadyNation members Maxine Clark, Founder and former CEO, Build-A-Bear Workshop; Jack McBride, Founder and CEO, Contec Inc.; and Hugh Welsh, President, dsm-firmenich North America.