Overlooked and Undercounted - Insight Center for Community ...

14 — OVERLOOKED AND UNDERCOUNTED
segregation, 5) wages, or 6) a combination of these
work-related factors. Below is an examination of these
possible reasons for employment-related causes of income
inadequacy.
Number of Workers. As Figure 7 shows, not having
any workers at all is associated with a very high incidence
of insufficient income: five-sixths of Mississippi
households with no workers (households in which no
one has been employed in the past year) lack sufficient
income. On the other hand, two-fifths of households
with one worker and one-sixth of households with two
or more workers still have incomes that fall below the
Standard.
This pattern is the same across racial/ethnic groups;
however, the impact of no workers, or only one worker
in a household is greater for African Americans (Table
5). The rate of income inadequacy among Mississippi
households with no workers is 71% for White households
and 94% for African-American households. Among
households with one or more workers, the rate of income
inadequacy drops substantially, but varies considerably
by race/ethnicity: with one adult worker, rates of income
inadequacy are 29% for White households but 57% for
African-American households. When there are two
or more workers in a household, the rate of income
Figure 7. Households Below the Self-Sufficiency
Standard by Number of Workers: Mississippi 2007
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
TWO OR
MORE WORKERS
ABOVE THE FPL & BELOW THE STANDARD
BELOW THE FEDERAL POVERTY LEVEL (FPL)
PERCENT OF HOUSEHOLDS BELOW STANDARD
100%
17%
41%
ONE WORKER
83%
NO WORKERS
NUMBER OF WORKERS IN HOUSEHOLD
inadequacy further drops to one in nine for White
households and one in three for African-American
households.
These data suggest that the number of workers in
a household is a major protector against income
insufficiency. However, only 6% of all (non-elderly,
non-disabled) households in Mississippi have no workers
in them at all. This proportion is similar across all
racial/ethnic groups. Moreover, even among Mississippi
households with incomes below the Standard, 83%
already have at least one worker. As the great majority
of households with incomes below the Standard have
working adults, lack of employment cannot be the only
factor explaining inadequate income.
If more than five out of six Mississippi families with
inadequate income already have at least one worker
in the household, it may be the amount or the type of
employment that contributes to incomes remaining
inadequate. 18 Next, we will explore some of the possible
aspects of employment that could lead to inadequate
income despite work.
Employment patterns. A key characteristic of
employment is the work schedule, specifically whether
the householder works full-time or part-time and/or
whether the householder works year-round or part-year.
Part-time is defined as less than 35 hours per week and
part-year is defined as less than 50 weeks per year. 19 Not
surprisingly, the lowest rates of income inadequacy are
found among those families in which the householder
works full-time year-round, with less than one in five
households (18%) having insufficient income (Table 6).
Among Mississippi householders whose employment
is less than full-time throughout the year, income
inadequacy increases accordingly, as the number of hours
decrease:
Among householders working year-round, but only
part-time, 45% have insufficient income, more than
double the rate of householders working full-time
year-round.
Among householders who work full-time, but only
part of the year, income inadequacy is 42%, again
more than double the rate of householders working
full-time year-round. The majority of full-time part-