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TABLE 1 Sample family budgets for eight areas, by month and year, 1999 (single parent, 4-year-old, 8-year-old) Little Rock-North Los Angeles- Hattiesburg, Chicago, Nassau- Seattle-Bellevue- Houston, Rural Little Rock, AR Long Beach, CA MS IL Suffolk, NY Everett, WA TX Indiana Housing $497 $749 $398 $737 $1,105 $736 $601 $420 Food 351 351 351 351 351 351 351 351 Child care 525 786 459 722 975 734 556 637 Transportation 161 157 158 157 170 170 157 197 Health care 216 203 229 242 267 243 256 207 Other necessities 263 341 232 337 451 337 295 239 Taxes 139 316 5 397 731 306 153 167 Monthly total 2,151 2,903 1,832 2,942 4,051 2,878 2,369 2,218 10 Hardships in America Annual total $25,809 $34,839 $21,989 $35,307 $48,606 $34,534 $28,430 $26,618 Percent of poverty threshold 192% 260% 164% 263% 362% 257% 212% 198% * See Appendix F for the budgets for six family types for every MSA and a composite rural area. Source: Authors’ analysis.
Hardships in America 11 poverty line. The highest, in Nassau-Suffolk, is 362% of poverty. Most family budgets range between 200% and 300% of poverty; budgets for 12 areas total more than 300% of poverty. 1.5 Number and shares of families falling below family budget levels In order to count the number of families that fall below basic family budget levels, we used the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey. We combined data for the three years 1997-99 in order to generate a large enough sample size. We looked only at families with positive earnings and at families for the family types for which we created family budgets: families with one or two adults and one, two, or three children under 12. Our budgets assume that both parents work full time, so non-school-age children are assumed to be in child-care full time and school-age children to be in child care during afterschool hours. Although all families in the sample worked during the period examined, not all families worked full-time. To adjust for this, we reduced child care costs in proportion to the share of the year that family members worked. We count the number of families that fell below the family budget levels by the MSA or rural budget levels. However, the sample sizes were too small to reliably estimate how many people fall below the budget levels by MSA or rural area. Therefore, we totaled the number of families that fall below family budget levels in all MSAs and in the rural area in each state, and are able to report totals by state (see Appendix B for more details on the methodology). Nationally, over 4 million families with one to three children under 12 fell below basic family budgets in 1997-99 (see Table 2). These families comprise 14 million people, nearly 7 million adults and over 7 million children. Table 2 also compares the number of families in poverty compared to the number that fall below basic family budget levels; over two-and-a-half times more families fall below family budget levels than fall below the official poverty line. Thus, about 9 million persons in families with one to three children under 12 have incomes above the poverty line yet below the level required to meet their basic needs. Table 3 compares the share of families with income below basic family budget levels to those whose income is below the poverty line and twice the poverty line. Over the period examined, 1997-99, the income of 28.9% of families with one to three children under 12 was below basic family budget levels, while just 10.1% were classified as poor. Thus, a much larger share of low-income working families are earning too little income to make ends meet than would be suggested by the national poverty statistics. 1.5.1 Families by demographics and work status We can get a picture of the types of families most likely to fall below family budget levels by looking at Table 3 and Table 4. Families headed by single parents, young workers, or workers with less than a college education are the
Page 1 and 2: HARDSHIPS IN AMERICA The Real Story
Page 3 and 4: Table of contents Executive Summary
Page 5 and 6: Hardships in America 1 Executive su
Page 7 and 8: Hardships in America 3 Introduction
Page 9 and 10: Hardships in America 5 Chapter 1 Fa
Page 11 and 12: Hardships in America 7 measures (Sh
Page 13: Hardships in America 9 prepared at
Page 17 and 18: Hardships in America 13 TABLE 3 Sha
Page 19 and 20: Hardships in America 15 compared to
Page 21 and 22: Hardships in America 17 TABLE 5 (co
Page 23 and 24: Hardships in America 19 Chapter 2 T
Page 25 and 26: specific and invasive nature of the
Page 27 and 28: Hardships in America 23 TABLE 6 (co
Page 29 and 30: Hardships in America 25 2.3.3 Insuf
Page 31 and 32: Hardships in America 27 and SIPP),
Page 33 and 34: Hardships in America 29 TABLE 7 Pro
Page 35 and 36: Hardships in America 31 TABLE 9 Pro
Page 37 and 38: Hardships in America 33 white famil
Page 39 and 40: Hardships in America 35 TABLE 11 Pr
Page 41 and 42: Hardships in America 37 more immedi
Page 43 and 44: Hardships in America 39 FIGURE D He
Page 45 and 46: Hardships in America 41 hardship. E
Page 47 and 48: Hardships in America 43 · Pay equi
Page 49 and 50: Hardships in America 45 of eligible
Page 51 and 52: Hardships in America 47 income fami
Page 53 and 54: Hardships in America 49 Conclusion
Page 55 and 56: Hardships in America 51 When the st
Page 57 and 58: Hardships in America 53 wages, and
Page 59 and 60: Hardships in America 55 share resou
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Hardships in America 61 TABLE A2.1
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Hardships in America 63 necessary m
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Hardships in America 65 TABLE A3.2
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Hardships in America 67 Appendix F
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Hardships in America 69 10. Tests o
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Hardships in America 71 Citro, Cons
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TABLE A4.1 Basic family budgets for
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Across the country, millions of ful
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