Basic Needs, Poverty and Living Wages

1
Basic Needs, Poverty and Living Wages

• What is poverty?
• Surveys
• Absolute versus relative standards
• Median Income
• Basic Needs Budgets
• What are basic needs?
• Food, Housing, Transportation, Child Care,
  Utilities, Toiletries, Cleaning Supplies, etc.

2
How Much Does it Cost to Live?

• Figure out Monthly Budget for
• Single Person
• Single Parent, One Child
• Married Couple, Two Children

3
Costs

• Food 2003
• Single Man 172.50
• Single Woman 150.80
• Family of 4 with 2 children
• 510.50 (young kids under 5 (more otherwise))
• Fair Market Rents (2002)
• 0BR 366 1BR 465 2BR 619.
• Child Care e.g. 512 per month for one kid

4
Living Wages, Poverty Rates, and Minimum Wages?

• Living wages are usually at least twice the
  poverty rate
• Problems with the Poverty Rate
• No Child Care Costs
• Increasing Transportation and Housing Costs
• Not regionally adjusted- one rate for country
• Minimum Wage 5.15 per hour

5
Living Wage Movement Economic Context

• 1973-1993
• Declining Wages for Low-Skill Men (-23)
• Stagnating Wages for Low-Skill Women (-3)
• After Tax Pay for CEOs Increases (66)
• Increasing Inequality
• Proportion of all income held by top 5 increased
  from 16.6 to 21
• Proportion of all income held by bottom 80 from
  19 to 16.3

6
Current Context

• Wages increased in late 1990s
• After 2000, wages decline poverty rises
• Low earnings confronts 73 of poor worker
• 2nd biggest problem unemployment (30)
• At all levels of educational attainment, women
  are more likely than men and minorities more
  likely than whites to be working poor.

7
Living Wages Yes

• enable workers to provide for basic needs w/o
  relying on charity/neglecting families
• Indirect benefits
• Other workers
• More money in the community
• businesses benefit from lower turnover
• lower costs for social supports
• No evidence of unemploymentdisplacement
• EITC is not a substitute for fair wages

8
Living Wages No

• Living wages are an inefficient tool to help poor
  workers
• displace low-skills workers
• lower wages reflect lower skills
• other more targetted tools better aid the poor