Overlooked and Undercounted - Insight Center for Community ...

26 — OVERLOOKED AND UNDERCOUNTED
people below the Standard, as with most people above the
Standard, are already working, and working many hours.
Those lacking sufficient income are not substantially
different in their characteristics or behavior from those
with sufficient income, except that their incomes,
comprised mostly of earnings, are substantially lower.
Finding #2: In spite of substantial educational
achievement, women and/or African Americans
experience less “returns” to education and work
effort than White males.
The analysis presented here found that consistently,
women and/or African Americans had higher rates of
income inadequacy than White males with similar levels
of education and/or work patterns (such as full-time,
year-round worker). This suggests that it is important to
ensure that education, training, career counseling, and
job placement programs seek equal wages and benefits
for participants, regardless of gender or race/ethnicity.
Moreover, education and training efforts should be
focused on ensuring participants enter not just certain
occupations, but specific jobs within occupational fields
that provide, or will soon lead to wages at self-sufficient
levels.
Finding #3: It is not the lack of work that drives
poverty, but rather the nature of the jobs and
economic opportunity in the economy for those
who are working.
The analysis presented here indicates that moving people
into the workforce does not by itself solve poverty. The
findings show how quickly and completely the nature of
poverty has changed over the last 15 years, or at least, how
it must be recognized as having changed. Over a decade
ago, in the years leading up to welfare reform, there was a
narrow focus on moving those receiving welfare into the
paid workforce, on the assumption that such a strategy
would go a long way to solving the problem of poverty.
Whether true or not then, the data in this report shows
clearly that the assumption that “lack of work” as the key
cause of poverty no longer holds.
Moreover, the analysis in this report suggests that
moving people into just any job will not automatically
eliminate income inadequacy. If every Mississippi
household that had no workers were to add a worker, that
…FAMILIES ARE NOT POOR BECAUSE THEY
LACK WORKERS, OR BECAUSE THEY ARE
WORKING IN THE WRONG OCCUPATIONS, BUT
BECAUSE WAGES HAVE BECOME INADEQUATE
TO MEET BASIC EXPENSES.
would only affect about one in six Mississippi households
with incomes below the Standard. Among the remaining
five-sixths of households with at least one worker, a
substantial number are already working full-time,
year-round. Moreover, though their earnings may be
inadequate, few of these workers are working in “lowwage”
occupations, (with some notable exceptions, such
as farm workers). In sum, these data show that families
are not poor because they lack workers, or because they are
working in the wrong occupations, but because wages have
become inadequate to meet basic expenses. Thus, a focus
on putting people to work, or changing the occupations
of low-income workers would not necessarily affect their
income inadequacy. Rather, today’s economy requires a
much more nuanced, specific, and targeted approach to
addressing income adequacy. This suggests the need for
an increased focus on education, training, and economic
development strategies and other policies that yield
high-wage jobs and pay family-sustaining wages as well
as benefits. It also suggests that strategies that move
people within occupational categories—such as from
nurse aide to health technician—would be viable routes
to self-sufficiency.
Finding #4: The majority of families with workers
are struggling to make ends meet without any
help from work support programs.
Nearly half of Mississippi households with incomes
below the Standard have incomes above the FPL. Most of
these households are in a “policy gap,” with incomes too
high (above the FPL) to qualify for most public assistance
programs, but too low to adequately meet basic needs. As
a result, many householders are unable to earn enough
to meet the rising costs of basic living, so they struggle to
make ends meet without the aid of “safety net” programs.
Whether at the individual level (such as SNAP/food
stamps), or at the community level (such as Community