Not the same thing. The tax credit I'm talking about goes to the employer. Right now, we just tax the employer (or the wealthy owners of the business) and redistribute. Let's cut out the middleman that's the government, and not tax employers who pay their employees up to the poverty level.
Ah, I misunderstood. It looks like a version of this exists which provides tax incentives to hire veterans, food stamp recipients, and other disadvantaged groups.
Yes, this looks similar to what I was thinking....basically employers are paying what would otherwise be a government expense to provide federal benefits to these individuals, so those employers are saving the government money. I don't have time to research now, but I would be curious to learn if the program is successful - is it revenue neutral? How much of a credit do employers get? etc...