The original chart (2012) is from Gary Alexander, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Public Welfare.[1] Pennsylvania has a substantial program to pay for child care for many of its residents: https://www.dhs.pa.gov/Services/Children/Pages/Child-Care-Wo...
Here's an older CBO report making the same point (p.15): https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments...
The childcare part — the largest and most problematic benefits cliff in the graph — appears to be specific to PA. But PA doesn't offer a monetary childcare benefit: one would have to be arguing that this is the specific dollar amount that the care is worth … which … IDK. I'd like to at least see that argument. But the vesting cliff, as depicted, doesn't line up with any of PA's cutoffs, either.
So, this graph smells of statistical lies.