July 11, 2008
Friday

(SitNews) - The federal poverty line does a poor job of measuring economic insecurity in the United States according to a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). In the typical state, 22 percent of people in working families suffer from economic hardship because their earnings and income from other sources, including public work supports and other public benefits, fall below the basic needs budget standard for where they live. By comparison, only 12.6 percent of Americans live below the federal poverty line.

The recent study, Working Families and Economic Insecurity in the States: The Role of Job Quality and Work Supports, provides information on job quality and the economic security of working families in the states in the first half of the current decade. The report also quantifies the important role that public work supports-benefits for workers such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and child care assistance-play in helping workers make ends meet.

To determine how much income a working family needs to "make ends meet", the authors of the report, Rebecca Ray, Shawn Fremstad and Hye Jin Rho, use basic family budgets that take into account the actual costs of goods and services needed to have a decent standard of living, as well as the variations in these costs, depending on where one lives.

The recent study also shows that most economically insecure workers have jobs that pay low wages and provide few or no benefits or "bad Jobs". Only a minority of jobs nation-wide are "good jobs", in other words, ones that pay at least $17 an hour and provide health and retirement benefits.

This study found that in Alaska:

• 27% of jobs are "good jobs." A good job as one that pays well - at least $17 an hour, the median wage for men in 1979 (in inflation-adjusted 2006 dollars) - and provides employer-sponsored health and retirement benefits.
• 33.3% of the jobs are "bad jobs." A bad job is one that meets none of the "good jobs" criteria. Bad jobs pay less than $17 an hour, don't come with health insurance, and don't offer a retirement plan.
• 16% of the people in working families are economically insecure because their earnings and income from other sources, including public work supports and other public benefits, falls below the basic family budget standard for where they live.
• The typical (median) monthly income of economically insecure families in Alaska is $1,804.
• $722 is the "hardship gap," the difference between a family's income and the basic budget standard for where they live.
• 67% of the gap between basic needs and income - the hardship gap - is closed by public work supports. The public work supports are child care assistance, the Earned Income Tax Credit, food stamps, Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, housing assistance, and Temporary Assistance.
• 5% of the people (people in working families) are lifted to or above the basic family budget threshold by public work supports.
  

Related Information:

Download the Study: Working Families and Economic Insecurity in the States: The Role of Job Quality and Work Supports
http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/state_2008_05.pdf

Sources of News:

The Center for Economic and Policy Research
http://www.cepr.net

Alaska Center for Public Policy
Alaska's independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank
http://acpp.info/alaska-center-for-public-policy/

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