Administrative Burden

Policymakers first began to see the EITC as an alternative to raising the minimum wage, which—though immensely popular among the general public and cheap for government to implement—was fiercely opposed by business. Businesses, and particularly their lobbying organizations, came to understand that the EITC could be used as a way to fend off minimum wage increases. In short, as path dependency predicts, the policy created its own supporter.