Low-Income Adults

Evidence Review

Topic Overview

The low-income adults topic area includes reviews of studies examining the effectiveness of interventions that serve low-income adults with the goal of improving their employment and earnings outcomes. CLEAR assessed the strength of causal evidence provided in each study and summarized each study’s design, methods, findings, and the intervention examined.

CLEAR conducted many reviews in this topic area in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Pathways to Work Evidence Clearinghouse and its predecessor the Employment Strategies for Low-Income Adults Evidence Review (ESER). For those studies, CLEAR rated the studies using the CLEAR Causal Evidence Guidelines and developed the study profiles posted here using information from the Pathways and ESER reviews.

Status: Literature reviewed in this topic area currently covers 1990 – 2021.

Explore Studies

Explore Studies

Find CLEAR's plain-language reviews of individual studies to learn about what a study found, how it was designed, and how relevant it may be to your needs.

How do we review evidence?

CLEAR reviews studies using formal standards and procedures that were developed in consultation with experts in research methods, as well as with practitioners working in the specific topic area. You can find CLEAR's current Policies and Procedures for reviewing studies and its standards for reviewing studies and rating findings on the CLEAR's Review Process page.