tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/us-poverty-51864/articlesUS poverty – The Conversation2024-03-08T13:38:13Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2219392024-03-08T13:38:13Z2024-03-08T13:38:13ZTeenagers often know when their parents are having money problems − and that knowledge is linked to mental health challenges, new research finds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576103/original/file-20240216-28-neuioj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=120%2C77%2C5609%2C3736&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teens are more clued in to family finances than many people think.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/single-working-mother-and-her-teenage-girl-talking-royalty-free-image/1457103190">Olga Rolenko/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When parents try to shield their kids from financial hardship, they may be doing them a favor: Teens’ views about their families’ economic challenges are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579423001451">connected to their mental health and behavior</a>.</p>
<p>That’s the main finding of a study into household income and child development that I recently conducted with my colleagues.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&oi=ao&user=--zcHSQAAAAJ">professor of psychology</a>, I know there’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01210-4">a good deal of research</a> showing that young people who experience more household economic hardship <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-019-00833-y">tend to have more behavioral problems</a>.</p>
<p>But most studies on this issue rely heavily on caregiver reports – that is, what adults say about their kids. Fewer researchers have asked young people themselves. </p>
<p>To fill this gap, my colleagues and I asked more than 100 Pittsburgh-area teenagers, as well as their parents, about their family income, their views about their financial challenges, and their mental health. We checked in with them multiple times over nine months. </p>
<p>Doing this, we found a few important things. First, we found that many families’ economic situations varied over time – they were doing fine with money in some months and struggling during others. And second, we found that when teenagers said they and their family were experiencing hardship, those teens had more behavioral problems.</p>
<p>For example, many teens said that they couldn’t afford school supplies or that their caregivers worried because they lacked money for necessities. In the months when teens reported experiencing these hardships, they were more likely to feel depressed and get in trouble at school.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Other researchers have found that economic hardship is related to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.00986.x">differences in parenting</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/children9070981">academic achievement</a> and many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2022.106400">other developmental outcomes</a> – but prior studies haven’t always captured the complexities and challenges that struggling families face. </p>
<p>For example, researchers studying links between economic hardship and youth behavioral development have historically looked at family income on a yearly basis. But bills come due weekly or monthly. Our work shows that looking at the annual data alone risks missing an important part of the story: Many families experience brief spells of financial instability.</p>
<p>Our work also shows that teens are acutely affected by economic conditions in their daily lives and understand their families’ circumstances. This has important implications for research. Given that adolescence is a time of major emotional and cognitive changes, our team believes that researchers should center on the perspectives of young people directly affected by economic challenges. For example, we have previously found that how young people view stress and support in their lives may have <a href="https://theconversation.com/positive-parenting-can-help-protect-against-the-effects-of-stress-in-childhood-and-adolescence-new-study-shows-208268">implications for their brain development</a>.</p>
<p>This work also has important implications for public policy. For example, lawmakers assume that economic hardship is fairly stable and set anti-poverty policies accordingly. Our research offers fresh evidence that many people see <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/31/business/31-volatility.html">large income swings throughout the year</a>. This kind of economic instability has been found to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-016-0181-5">affect child development</a>, especially when families <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579419001494">lose large amounts of income</a>. To lessen the impact of poverty, policymakers may need to think about economic hardship more dynamically.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>Our research team wants to continue putting young people’s voices front and center. We’re also interested in more complex ways to make sense of socioeconomic status. While we know that income matters for families, we’re increasingly focused on household wealth, which is a household’s assets minus its debts. Wealth may influence child development in ways that are different from income. We’re just starting to collect data for a new project examining how both of these factors <a href="https://sanford.duke.edu/story/nichd-awards-grant-sanford-partnership-focused-adolescent-wellness-factors/">affect teen mental health</a>.</p>
<p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take on interesting academic work.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221939/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie Hanson and his colleagues receive funding from the National Institutes of Health. Hanson is also a board member of the Pittsburgh Non-Profit, Project Destiny.</span></em></p>A study of more than 100 teens and their caregivers showed a unique link between hardship and behavior problems.Jamie Hanson, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of PittsburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2186822024-02-21T13:19:25Z2024-02-21T13:19:25ZMarriage is not as effective an anti-poverty strategy as you’ve been led to believe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575664/original/file-20240214-26-6cr98q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite the popular guidance, marriage can be an economic risk for single parents with unstable partners.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/divorce-process-royalty-free-image/1329914655">simarik/iStock/Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Brides.com predicts that 2024 will be the “<a href="https://www.brides.com/marriage-proposal-boom-2024-8358024">year of the proposal</a>” as engagements tick back up after a pandemic-driven slowdown.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, support for marriage has found new grist in recent books, including <a href="https://sociology.as.virginia.edu/people/w-bradford-wilcox">sociologist</a> Brad Wilcox’s “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Get-Married-Americans-Families-Civilization/dp/0063210851">Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families and Save Civilization</a>” and economist Melissa Kearney’s “<a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo205550079.html">The Two-Parent Privilege</a>.”</p>
<p>Kearney’s book was <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/review-of-the-two-parent-privilege-by-melissa-kearney">hailed by economist Tyler Cowen</a> as possibly “the most important economics and policy book of this year.” This is not because it treads new ground but because, as author <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/review-of-the-two-parent-privilege-by-melissa-kearney">Kay Hymowitz writes</a>, it breaks the supposed “taboo about an honest accounting of family decline.” </p>
<p>These developments are good news for the marriage promotion movement, which <a href="https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/webid-moynihan">for decades</a> has claimed that marriage supports children’s well-being and combats poverty. The movement dates back at least to the U.S. Department of Labor’s <a href="https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/webid-moynihan">Moynihan Report of 1965</a>, which argued that <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/the-moynihan-report-an-annotated-edition/404632/">family structure aggravated Black poverty</a>.</p>
<p>Forty years after the Moynihan Report, George W. Bush-era programs such as the <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ocs/policy-guidance/csbg-im-no-89-healthy-marriage-initiative">Healthy Marriage Initiative</a> sought to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4624797">enlist churches</a> and other community groups in an effort to channel childbearing back into marriage. These initiatives continue today, with the federally subsidized <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ofa/programs/healthy-marriage-responsible-fatherhood">Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood programs</a>.</p>
<p>Still, nearly <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/stories/single-parent-day.html">30% of U.S. children</a> live in single-parent homes today, compared with 10% in 1965.</p>
<p>We are <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gCJEShUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">law professors</a> who have written extensively about <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=0BBCYNAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">family structure</a> and <a href="https://www.fordham.edu/school-of-law/faculty/directory/full-time/eleanor-brown/">poverty</a>. We, and others, have found that there is almost no evidence that federal programs that promote marriage <a href="https://www.bgsu.edu/content/dam/BGSU/college-of-arts-and-sciences/NCFMR/documents/FP/FP-14-02_HMIInitiative.pdf">have made a difference</a> in encouraging two-parent households. That’s in large part because they forgo effective solutions that directly address poverty for measures that embrace the culture wars. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575989/original/file-20240215-28-q3xgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Child hangs upside down on playground equipment" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575989/original/file-20240215-28-q3xgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575989/original/file-20240215-28-q3xgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575989/original/file-20240215-28-q3xgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575989/original/file-20240215-28-q3xgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575989/original/file-20240215-28-q3xgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575989/original/file-20240215-28-q3xgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575989/original/file-20240215-28-q3xgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Having a parent who has a college degree makes kids less likely to live in poverty than having parents who are married.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/girl-upside-down-on-the-jungle-gym-royalty-free-image/1127705002">Mayur Kakade/Moment Collection via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Marriage and social class</h2>
<p>Today’s marriage promoters claim that <a href="https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-benefits-of-marriage-shouldnt-only-be-for-elites">marriage should not be just for elites</a>. The emergence of marriage as a marker of class, they believe, is a sign of societal dysfunction.</p>
<p>According to census data released in 2021, 9.5% of children living with two parents – and 7.5% with married parents – <a href="https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/statistical-briefing-book/population/faqs/qa01203#:%7E:text=In%202021%2C%209.5%25%20of%20children,17.4%25">lived below the poverty level</a>, compared with 31.7% of children living with a single parent.</p>
<p>Kearney’s argument comes down to: 1 + 1 = 2. Two parents have more resources, including money and time to spend with children, than one. She marshals extensive research designed to show that children from married couple families are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-economics-063016-103749">more likely to graduate</a> from high school, complete college and earn <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-economics-063016-103749">higher incomes as adults</a> than the children of single parents.</p>
<p>It is undoubtedly true that two parents – that is, two nonviolent parents with reliable incomes and cooperative behavior – have <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/cohabiting-parents-differ-from-married-ones-in-three-big-ways/">more resources for their children</a> than one parent who has to work two jobs to pay the rent. However, this equation <a href="https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/pmyhj">does not address causation</a>. In other words, parents who have stable incomes and behaviors are more likely to stay together than parents who don’t.</p>
<p>Ethnographic studies indicate, for example, that the most common reasons unmarried women are no longer with the fathers of their children are the men’s <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=3841832">violent behavior, infidelity</a> and <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520335233/essential-dads">substance abuse</a>.</p>
<p>Moreover, income volatility disproportionately affects parents who don’t go to college. So while they may have more money to invest in children together than apart, when one of these parents experiences a substantial drop in income, the other parent may have to decide whether to <a href="https://elibrary.law.psu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1455&context=fac_works">support the partner or the children</a> on what is often a meager income.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/having-a-single-parent-doesnt-determine-your-life-chances-the-data-shows-poverty-is-far-more-important-217841">impact of having single parents</a> also plays out differently by race and class. As sociologist and researcher <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/09/opinion/two-parent-family.html">Christina Cross explains</a>, “Living apart from a biological parent does not carry the same cost for Black youths as for their white peers, and being raised in a two-parent family is not equally beneficial.” </p>
<p>For example, Cross found that living in a single-mother family is less likely to affect high school completion rates for Black children than for white children. Also, Black families tend to be more embedded in extended family than white families, and this additional support system may help protect children from negative outcomes associated with single-parent households.</p>
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<h2>Making men more ‘marriageable’</h2>
<p>Kearney, to her credit, does note that economic insecurity largely explains what is happening to working-class families, and that no parent should have to tolerate violence or substance abuse. But she doubles down on the need to restore a norm of two-parent families.</p>
<p>Many of her policy prescriptions are sensible. She advocates for better opportunities for low-income men – to make them, in the words of <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo13375722.html">sociologist William Julius Wilson</a>, “marriageable.” Such policies would include wage subsidies to improve their job opportunities, investment in community colleges that provide skills training, and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/banning-the-box-would-help-people-released-from-prison-rebuild-their-lives-45539">removal of questions about criminal histories</a> from job applications, so that candidates who have previously been incarcerated are not immediately disqualified.</p>
<h2>A new marriage model</h2>
<p>What marriage promotion efforts overlook, however, are the underlying changes in what marriage has become – both legally and practically. </p>
<p>The new marriage model rests on three premises.</p>
<p>The first is a moral command: Have sex if you want to, but don’t have children until you are ready. While the shotgun marriage once served as the primary response to unplanned pregnancy, such marriages today often derail education and careers and are <a href="https://today.duke.edu/2016/11/shotgun-marriage-dead#:%7E:text=After%20a%20decade%2C%2030%20percent,prior%20to%20a%20child's%20conception.">more likely to result in divorce</a> than other marriages. Research shows that lower-income women’s pregnancies are much <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/factsheet/fb-unintended-pregnancy-us_0_4.pdf">more likely to be unplanned</a>. </p>
<p>The second is the ability to pick a partner who will support you and assume joint responsibility for parenting. As women have attained more economic independence, they are less in need of men to raise children, particularly if their partners are insensitive or abusive. With healthy relationships, couples pick partners based on trust, commitment and equal respect. This is more difficult to do in communities with high rates of incarceration and few opportunities for stable employment. </p>
<p>And the third is economic and behavioral stability. Instability undermines even committed unions. Parents who wait until they find the right partner and have stable lives bring a lot more to parenting, whether they marry or not.</p>
<p>We believe that creating opportunities for low-income parents to reach this middle-class model is likely to be the most effective marriage promotion policy.</p>
<h2>Economic support is key</h2>
<p>In relationships that fall outside of these premises, 1 + 1 often becomes 1 + -1, which equals 0.</p>
<p>Being committed to a partner who can’t pay speeding tickets, runs up credit card bills, comes home drunk or can’t be relied on to pick up the children after school is not a recipe for success. </p>
<p>Economic principles suggest that businesses with more volatile income streams need a stronger capital base to withstand the downturns. Working-class couples who face economic insecurity see commitment as similarly misguided; without a capital base, a downturn for one partner can wipe out the other.</p>
<p>The Biden administration’s child tax credit expansion included in the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-02-08/the-child-tax-credit-bill-seems-destined-for-defeat-in-the-senate?embedded-checkout=true">American Rescue Plan Act of 2021</a> helped cut the child poverty rate – after accounting for government assistance – <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/governments-pandemic-response-turned-a-would-be-poverty-surge-into">to a record low</a> that year. It did more to address child poverty than <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140106094155.htm">marriage promotion efforts have ever done</a>.</p>
<p>Researchers have described such income-support policies as the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-020-09782-0">ultimate multipurpose policy instrument</a>.” They improve the economic circumstances of single-parent families and, in doing so, may also provide greater support for two-parent relationships. </p>
<p>Policymakers know how to solve child poverty – and these measures are far more effective than efforts to put two married parents in every household.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218682/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Marriage on its own won’t do away with child poverty, and in fact it can create even more instability for low-income families.Eleanor Brown, Professor of Law, Fordham UniversityJune Carbone, Professor of Law, University of MinnesotaNaomi Cahn, Professor of Law, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1944332024-02-14T13:23:10Z2024-02-14T13:23:10ZReal-world experiments in messaging show that getting low-income people the help they need is more effective when stigma is reduced<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518833/original/file-20230401-14-crh8sz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5168%2C2916&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Stigma tied to poverty can create a barrier to the very help people need. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/BUkU-VhzW-s">@felipepelaquim for Unsplash.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are pervasive stereotypes that Americans who are low income and access government assistance are lazy, lack a work ethic and are even morally inferior. This stigma has been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2022.101117">shown to have many negative consequences</a>. </p>
<p>But until now, there’s been little research on whether this stigma influences the willingness to use government assistance.</p>
<p>We studied the effect of stigma in the context of <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/coronavirus/assistance-for-state-local-and-tribal-governments/emergency-rental-assistance-program">Emergency Rental Assistance</a>. The purpose of rental assistance programs is to help low-income people avoid eviction by helping them pay overdue rent. While these programs have long existed, they received a large influx of new funds as part of the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>This offered an opportunity for our team at <a href="https://www.peoplelab.hks.harvard.edu/">The People Lab</a>, which is based at the Harvard Kennedy School, to examine some of the barriers that low-income populations face in accessing safety net programs.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518832/original/file-20230401-28-bvpye4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A worn-out sign street advertising apartments for rent." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518832/original/file-20230401-28-bvpye4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518832/original/file-20230401-28-bvpye4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518832/original/file-20230401-28-bvpye4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518832/original/file-20230401-28-bvpye4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518832/original/file-20230401-28-bvpye4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518832/original/file-20230401-28-bvpye4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518832/original/file-20230401-28-bvpye4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The federal government helped low-income Americans pay overdue rent during the pandemic – but they had to apply for this benefit.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/zZ2mUNET5DQ">Bethany Reeves for Unsplash.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<h2>A less stigmatizing message</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4040234">recently published paper</a>, we described the results of two large studies we conducted in collaboration with the Denver Department of Housing Stability, the Denver Office of Social Equity and Innovation, and the Austin Housing and Planning Department. </p>
<p>Our goal was to test the impact of different outreach messages on the likelihood that people eligible for rental assistance would apply for benefits.</p>
<p>In the first randomized experiment, about 25,000 presumed renters in 56 neighborhoods in Denver received a mailer with straightforward information about the rental assistance program. Another group of approximately 25,000 presumed renters received a mailer with subtle language changes that aimed to reduce the internalized shame and potentially expected discrimination associated with participation in rental assistance.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575123/original/file-20240212-22-qg8aki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A promotional message for help paying rent" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575123/original/file-20240212-22-qg8aki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575123/original/file-20240212-22-qg8aki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575123/original/file-20240212-22-qg8aki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575123/original/file-20240212-22-qg8aki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575123/original/file-20240212-22-qg8aki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575123/original/file-20240212-22-qg8aki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575123/original/file-20240212-22-qg8aki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A destigmatizing email from this experiment with some information redacted.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The People Lab</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This destigmatizing message emphasized, for instance, that “it’s not your fault” if you need rental assistance.</p>
<p>We found that people who received the destigmatizing mailer were 11% more likely to apply for rental assistance than people who received the mailer that only included basic information, and 37% more likely to apply than people who did not receive anything in the mail.</p>
<p>In the second randomized experiment, we tested similar messages delivered via email to approximately 50,000 residents in Austin, Texas. We found similar results: Sending people a destigmatizing email that emphasized “it’s not your fault” if you need rental assistance led to higher engagement than a purely informational email. </p>
<p>Our findings suggest that it is possible to reduce internalized shame in a way that makes people who are eligible for government benefits more likely to apply for them – despite the presence of pervasive societal stigma. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518834/original/file-20230401-16-xrhwaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="One person stops to give something to another person sitting on the ground in a tunnel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518834/original/file-20230401-16-xrhwaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518834/original/file-20230401-16-xrhwaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518834/original/file-20230401-16-xrhwaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518834/original/file-20230401-16-xrhwaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518834/original/file-20230401-16-xrhwaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518834/original/file-20230401-16-xrhwaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518834/original/file-20230401-16-xrhwaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There should be no shame in getting assistance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/kyeJW1zRH0I">Elyse Chia for Unsplash.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Overcoming stigma</h2>
<p>U.S. safety net programs are <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/safety-net-more-effective-against-poverty-than-previously-thought">highly effective</a>, but only if people who are eligible for benefits use them. Applying for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/28/upshot/administrative-burden-quiz.html">assistance can be onerous</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjz013">Research</a> demonstrates that simplifying processes and providing clear and simple information about program benefits can increase participation in some contexts. Yet, gaps remain: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20200603">Simply providing information about programs and benefits</a> doesn’t always increase participation, and it doesn’t necessarily reach those who need assistance the most.</p>
<p>We hope our research sheds light on the way in which stigma may affect people’s willingness to use government benefits. And we hope these findings encourage government agencies to reconsider their approach to providing information and assistance to avoid inadvertently reinforcing the stigma associated with benefits use.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194433/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Linos receives funding for her research from many foundations, including the Russell Sage Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the Gates Foundation, J-PAL and others. She is a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a Faculty Affiliate of J-PAL and the California Policy Lab. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Lasky-Fink does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The stigma around poverty and government benefits can make those initiatives less effective.Jessica Lasky-Fink, Research Director of the People Lab, Harvard Kennedy SchoolElizabeth Linos, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Management, Harvard Kennedy SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2176402023-12-04T13:28:30Z2023-12-04T13:28:30ZCertain states, including Arizona, have begun scrapping court costs and fees for people unable to pay – two experts on legal punishments explain why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562784/original/file-20231130-19-9k4bbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Several U.S. states are eliminating criminal fines and fees for people who can't afford them. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/dollars-bills-with-law-gavel-legal-issues-royalty-free-image/1479990448?phrase=excessive+courts+costs+US&adppopup=true">Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In today’s American criminal legal system, courts impose fines and fees as a means to punish people and hold them accountable for legal violations. </p>
<p>At times, people are sentenced to pay without incarceration, but frequently people across the U.S. are sentenced to both jail time and fiscal penalties. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1745-9133.12442">Those costs</a> are assessed by individual courts and include processing and filing charges, jury fees and fiscal penalties such as interest charges and late penalty fees. The collected money is then used to pay for costs such as the administration of court-appointed attorneys, probation, detention and diversion programs.</p>
<p>But these fines and fees are often levied without any consideration for an individual’s ability to pay – and <a href="https://www.thecharlottepost.com/news/2023/10/11/local-state/how-north-carolina-turns-the-poor-into-criminals/">can add up</a> to thousands of dollars. Given the potential consequences of legal debt on people unable to pay, including the loss of the right to vote and further criminal infractions, we conducted a <a href="https://www.rsfjournal.org/content/8/2/1/tab-article-info">multistate study</a> on the impact of fines and fees.</p>
<p>What we found is that these types of sanctions do not improve public safety or serve as an effective deterrent in reducing further crime. More troubling is that the negative consequences of fines and fees are disproportionately felt by people of color and those who are poor. </p>
<p>Because of these potential financial hardships and adverse effects, U.S. lawmakers have begun to limit the types and amounts of fines and fees that can be charged.</p>
<h2>What the research shows</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2022.8.2.01">our study of eight states</a> – California, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Washington, Georgia, Missouri and Texas – we found extreme variations in how court-imposed fines and fees were used.</p>
<p>Some states had <a href="https://www.rsfjournal.org/content/8/1/221">statutes mandating a minimum amount</a> of fines and fees to be imposed on people for specific crimes and infractions; other states did not. Some local judges sentenced people unable to pay to jail as a violation of their sentence; other judges in different counties within the same state did not. To collect outstanding debts, some states <a href="https://www.rsfjournal.org/content/8/1/82">even sued</a> formerly incarcerated people for the cost of their room and board; other states did not.</p>
<p>In Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, for instance, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1541204016669213">our research</a> there showed that financial burden increased the chances among juvenile offenders to commit additional crimes within two years of their initial arrests.</p>
<p>In another statewide <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/15412040231180816?journalCode=yvja">study in Florida</a>, we found that fees increased recidivism and, in particular, that Black youth with restitution fees had a higher recidivism likelihood. Our study further found that Black and Hispanic youth tended to receive higher fees compared to white youth regardless of the alleged crimes. The average fees for Black juveniles was US$709.50, and $633.30 for Hispanic youths. In stark contrast, the average fees for white juveniles was $426.50.</p>
<p>A wealth of <a href="https://www.rsfjournal.org/content/8/1/221">research has illustrated</a> how unpaid court fines and fees force people to make decisions regarding <a href="https://www.rsfjournal.org/content/8/2/57">housing</a>, <a href="https://www.rsfjournal.org/content/8/2/36">medical care</a>, education and even food and <a href="https://www.russellsage.org/publications/pound-flesh">medication</a>. </p>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-issues-dear-colleague-letter-courts-regarding-fines-and-fees-youth-and">April 23, 2023, letter</a>, the U.S. Department of Justice warned court officials and state agencies that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/04/22/justice-department-fines-pardons-gupta/">imposing fines and fees</a> on offenders who cannot pay may result in them losing their jobs, driver’s license, right to vote or even their home. </p>
<h2>Changes across the country</h2>
<p>Depending on the crime, Arizona juveniles and their parents faced <a href="https://www.azcourts.gov/selfservicecenter/Juvenile-Law/Vacating-Juvenile-Monetary-Obligations#Vacated">a slew of costs</a>, including probation supervision fees, family counseling services, drug and alcohol screenings and even a $25 administrative fee for court-appointed attorneys.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://legiscan.com/AZ/text/SB1197/2023">a new law</a> says they don’t have to pay any of those anymore. </p>
<p>Though the law does not put an end to fines relating to restitution charges or driving under the influence of alcohol charges, it does eliminate all fees assessed by a juvenile court — for court-appointed attorneys, probation, detention and diversion programs.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A white woman stands in front of an American flag as she delivers a speech." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562549/original/file-20231129-23-wg1e6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562549/original/file-20231129-23-wg1e6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562549/original/file-20231129-23-wg1e6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562549/original/file-20231129-23-wg1e6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562549/original/file-20231129-23-wg1e6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562549/original/file-20231129-23-wg1e6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562549/original/file-20231129-23-wg1e6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has eliminated various fines and fees for juvenile offenders.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/arizona-gov-katie-hobbs-gives-a-brief-speech-prior-to-news-photo/1695716056?adppopup=true">Rebecca Noble/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Arizona was not alone. Indiana, Illinois, Montana, California, Louisiana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas and Virginia have also enacted similar laws that eliminate or reduce juvenile fines and fees. </p>
<p>As these states have learned, monetary sanctions do far more harm than good and inflict disproportionate hardship on those least able to pay them. </p>
<p>“These fees put unnecessary financial stress on children and their families when they should be focused on rehabilitation,” <a href="https://gilavalleycentral.net/governor-hobbs-signs-bill-relieving-arizona-families-from-excessive-legal-fees/">Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs</a> said in October 2023. “They hold individuals back at a time in their life when what they really need is help moving forward.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217640/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexes Harris receives funding from Arnold Ventures. She is affiliated with the Fines and Fees Justice Center as a board member.
Dr. Harris is the chair of the Washington State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (non-partisan, Federally appointed). She is also the faculty regent to the University of Washington Board of Regents. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex R. Piquero received funding from Arnold Ventures to undertake the study in Florida referred to in the article. Professor Piquero receives no funding at this time from any sources and no external sources of funding were used to prepare this piece. </span></em></p>The imposition of fines and fees on people unable to pay has had a disproportionate impact on Black and Latino communities.Alexes Harris, Professor of Sociology, University of WashingtonAlex R. Piquero, Professor of Sociology & Criminology and Arts & Sciences Distinguished Scholar, University of MiamiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2125852023-09-06T12:26:55Z2023-09-06T12:26:55ZThe US committed to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, but like other countries, it’s struggling to make progress<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546246/original/file-20230904-15-tjmfsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=229%2C467%2C3173%2C2207&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many colonias along the Texas-Mexico border still lack basic infrastructure, including running water.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TexasBorderColonias/47c19c2a66e340d49a1d534f3b6df91e/photo">AP Photo/Eric Gay</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a Zen parable, a man sees a horse and rider galloping by. The man asks the rider where he’s going, and the rider responds, “I don’t know. Ask the horse!”</p>
<p>It is easy to feel out of control and helpless in the face of the many problems Americans are now experiencing – <a href="https://www.kff.org/health-costs/issue-brief/americans-challenges-with-health-care-costs/">unaffordable health care</a>, <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/stories/poverty-awareness-month.html">poverty</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/ipcc-report-climate-solutions-exist-but-humanity-has-to-break-from-the-status-quo-and-embrace-innovation-202134">climate change</a>, to name a few. These problems are made harder by the ways in which people, including elected representatives, often talk past each other.</p>
<p>Most <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/06/21/inflation-health-costs-partisan-cooperation-among-the-nations-top-problems/">people want</a> a strong economy, social well-being and a healthy environment. These goals are interdependent: A strong economy isn’t possible without a society peaceful enough to support investment and well-functioning markets, or without water and air clean enough to support life and productivity. This understanding – that economic, social and environmental well-being are intertwined – is the premise of sustainable development. </p>
<p>In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2015/ga11688.doc.htm">unanimously adopted</a> 17 <a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2015/12/sustainable-development-goals-kick-off-with-start-of-new-year">Sustainable Development Goals</a>, known as the SDGs, with 169 measurable targets to be achieved by 2030. Though not legally binding, all nations, including the U.S., agreed to pursue this agenda.</p>
<p>The world is now halfway to that 2030 deadline. Countries have made some progress, such as reducing extreme poverty and child mortality, though the COVID-19 pandemic <a href="https://www.un.org/en/desa/it%E2%80%99s-now-or-never-achieving-sdgs-hinges-effective-crises-response">set back progress</a> on many targets.</p>
<p>On Sept. 18-19, 2023, countries are reviewing global progress toward those goals during a meeting at the United Nations. It’s a good opportunity for Americans to review their own progress because, as we see it, sustainable development is fundamentally American.</p>
<h2>Environment, economy and health intertwined</h2>
<p>Though not widely recognized, sustainable development has been a core American policy since President Richard Nixon signed the <a href="https://www.energy.gov/nepa/downloads/national-environmental-policy-act-1969">National Environmental Policy Act </a> into law in 1970. The law says that Americans should “use all practicable means and measures … to create and maintain conditions under which man [sic] and nature can exist in productive harmony and fulfill the social, economic, and other requirements of present and future generations of Americans.”</p>
<p>While it is tempting in today’s sour political climate to dismiss this as wishful thinking, the U.S. has made some progress reconciling economic development with environmental protection. </p>
<p>Gross domestic product, for example, grew 196% between 1980 and 2022, while total emissions of the six most common non-greenhouse air pollutants, including lead and sulfur dioxide, fell 73%, <a href="https://www.epa.gov/air-trends/air-quality-national-summary">according to the Environmental Protection Agency</a>. </p>
<p>The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, a major sustainable development law, is designed to further accelerate the use of renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions through tax credits and other incentives. <a href="https://www.goldmansachs.com/intelligence/pages/the-us-is-poised-for-an-energy-revolution.html">Goldman Sachs</a> estimated the law would spur about US$3 trillion in renewable energy investment. The law has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/one-year-biden-still-needs-explain-his-signature-clean-energy-legislation-2023-08-16/">already been credited with creating</a> 170,000 new jobs and leading to more than 270 new or expanded clean energy projects. That impact further demonstrates that environmental goals can align with economic growth.</p>
<p>The 2015 Sustainable Development Goals cover a broader range of environmental, social and economic issues, and there are indicators for assessing progress on each.</p>
<h2>How is America doing?</h2>
<p><a href="https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/rankings">The U.S. ranked 39th</a> out of 166 countries in a 2023 review of national efforts to implement the Sustainable Development Goals. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.unsdsn.org/about-us">Sustainable Development Solutions Network</a>, which operates under the auspices of the U.N. Secretary-General, finds that America is lagging behind the targets set <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals">for many of the Sustainable Development Goals</a> that are critical to the nation’s defense, competitiveness and health, such as reducing obesity, increasing life expectancy at birth, protecting labor rights, reducing maternal mortality, decreasing inequality and protecting biodiversity.</p>
<p>To understand where the U.S. is falling short, we asked <a href="https://www.eli.org/sites/default/files/files-pdf/GoverningforSustainability-TOC.pdf">26 experts working on various areas of sustainable development</a> to review the nation’s progress and make recommendations for future action. The resulting 2023 book, <a href="https://www.eli.org/eli-press-books/governing-sustainability">Governing for Sustainability</a>, provides some 500 U.S.-specific recommendations for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A young child, looking bored, sits on a woman's lap as a nurse tests her blood pressure." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546248/original/file-20230904-27-721s7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546248/original/file-20230904-27-721s7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546248/original/file-20230904-27-721s7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546248/original/file-20230904-27-721s7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546248/original/file-20230904-27-721s7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546248/original/file-20230904-27-721s7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546248/original/file-20230904-27-721s7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Residents waited in long lines for a free annual health clinic in Wise, Va., in 2017. A nonprofit operated the annual pop-up clinic for two decades until the state expanded Medicaid eligibility in 2019, which helped more residents afford local health care.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ruby-partin-and-her-adoptive-son-timothy-huff-visit-a-free-news-photo/820902146">John Moore/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Health and access to quality health care loom large in many of the goals. The authors in several chapters explain why the nation cannot eliminate poverty or hunger, or have a vibrant economy, gender equality or education gains, without widely available, affordable health care. Yet, the U.S. has some of the <a href="https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2023/07/why-are-americans-paying-more-for-healthcare">highest health care costs in the world</a>. Several states have <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/georgia-medicaid-program-work-requirement-off-slow-start-102389380">rejected efforts to expand eligibility</a> for federal Medicaid health insurance for low-income residents, leaving many people without care.</p>
<p>Similarly, the authors show that human health, ecological health, clean water and economic vitality <a href="https://www.eli.org/eli-press-books/governing-sustainability">all require sound climate policy</a>. A quickly warming world <a href="https://theconversation.com/8-billion-people-four-ways-climate-change-and-population-growth-combine-to-threaten-public-health-with-global-consequences-193077">poses new health risks</a>, decimates ecosystems, strains potable water supplies and reduces global economic productivity.</p>
<p>Clean and abundant water is critical to a functioning economy and a stable, diverse ecosystem, and yet some areas of the United States <a href="https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-rules-the-us-is-not-required-to-ensure-access-to-water-for-the-navajo-nation-202588">still lack clean water</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/youth-living-in-settlements-at-us-border-suffer-poverty-and-lack-of-health-care-103416">indoor plumbing</a>. This often occurs in communities of color and low income, and it can impede economic prosperity and development in these areas.</p>
<p>Ready access to nutritious food is also a bedrock need to support many of the Sustainable Development Goals, from poverty alleviation to education, yet far too many American children <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001%2Fjamanetworkopen.2021.5262">rely on school lunches</a> for <a href="https://www.ppic.org/blog/feeding-children-when-schools-are-closed-for-covid-19/">basic sustenance</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man squints into the sun as he holds a large hose that pours water into a tank in the back of a pickup truck." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546249/original/file-20230904-27-t1qoyk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546249/original/file-20230904-27-t1qoyk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546249/original/file-20230904-27-t1qoyk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546249/original/file-20230904-27-t1qoyk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546249/original/file-20230904-27-t1qoyk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546249/original/file-20230904-27-t1qoyk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546249/original/file-20230904-27-t1qoyk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A U.S. Army veteran fills a tank in the back of his pickup with water in Laredo, Texas, to provide water for his mother’s home. Rural residents in parts of the Southwest have to truck in clean water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/carlos-salas-u-s-army-veteran-fills-his-water-tank-that-is-news-photo/916823510">Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The goals covering <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal16">peace, justice, strong institutions</a> and <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal17">partnerships</a> are necessary to achieve all of the goals. A society at war with itself and without rule of law cannot support a vibrant, diverse economy and lasting democracy. This has been shown repeatedly as some developing nations <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2022/10/20/understanding-and-responding-to-global-democratic-backsliding-pub-88173">backslide from democratic progress</a> and prosperity to civil war and poverty. <a href="https://www.eli.org/eli-press-books/governing-sustainability">Developed nations</a> are subject to the same forces.</p>
<h2>Taking the reins</h2>
<p>Sustainable development is emphatically not about government alone solving the nation’s problems. Businesses, universities and other organizations, as well as individuals, are essential to help the country realize its environmental, health and climate goals, fair practices and living wages. </p>
<p>The right place to “take the reins” is where you are, and with the problems or tasks in front of you – at work and at home. Figure out more sustainable ways to use water and energy, for example. Look at what our book recommends and what others are already doing to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. Seize opportunities such as saving money, and reduce risks by, for example, cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Every individual can contribute to a better future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212585/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Halfway to the SDGs’ 2030 deadline, countries have made progress, but most are struggling to meet all 17 goals. The US is no exception.Scott Schang, Director of Environmental Law and Policy Clinic; Professor of Practice, Wake Forest UniversityJohn Dernbach, Professor of Law Emeritus, Widener UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2088932023-07-05T12:24:21Z2023-07-05T12:24:21ZAmerica faces a power disconnection crisis amid rising heat: In 31 states, utilities can shut off electricity for nonpayment in a heat wave<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535395/original/file-20230703-253876-e0fp4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6720%2C4476&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Low-income residents are among those most likely to lose cooling in their homes because they can't pay their bills.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/elderly-woman-with-fan-royalty-free-image/1420571004">Solidcolours/iStock/Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Millions of Americans have been sweltering through heat waves in recent weeks, and U.S. forecasters warn of a <a href="https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/seasonal.php?lead=1">hot summer ahead</a>. </p>
<p>Globally, 2023 saw the <a href="https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/it-was-hottest-june-record-unprecedented-north-atlantic-warmth-record-low-antarctic-sea-0">warmest June on record</a>, according to the European Union’s climate change service. That heat continued into July, with some of the hottest global daily temperatures on satellite record, and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/global-heat-record-hottest-climate-change-july-483fc8e2a286062773692db1a37efe23">possibly the hottest</a>. </p>
<p>For people who struggle to afford air conditioning, the rising need for cooling is a growing crisis. </p>
<p>An alarming number of Americans risk losing access to utility services because they can’t pay their bills. Energy utility providers <a href="https://utilitydisconnections.org/">shut off electricity to at least 3 million customers</a> in 2022 who had missed a bill payment. Over 30% of these disconnections happened in the three summer months, during a year that was the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-says-2022-fifth-warmest-year-on-record-warming-trend-continues">fifth hottest on record</a>.</p>
<p>In some cases, the loss of service lasted for just a few hours. But in others, people went without electricity for days or weeks while scrambling to find enough money to restore service, often only to face disconnection again.</p>
<p>As researchers who study <a href="https://energyjustice.indiana.edu/index.html">energy justice and energy insecurity</a>, we believe the United States is in the midst of a disconnection crisis. We started tracking these disconnections utility by utility around the country, and we believe that the crisis will only get worse as the impacts of climate change become more widespread and more severe. In our view, it is time government agencies and utilities start treating household energy security as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-020-0582-0">national priority</a>.</p>
<h2>1 in 4 households face energy insecurity</h2>
<p>Americans tend to think about the loss of electricity as something infrequent and temporary. For most, it is a rare inconvenience stemming from a heat wave or storm.</p>
<p>But for millions of U.S. households, the risk of losing power is a constant concern. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, <a href="https://www.eia.gov/consumption/residential/">1 in 4 American households</a> experience some form of energy insecurity each year, with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-023-01265-0">no appreciable improvement</a> over the past decade.</p>
<p>For many low-income households, the risk of a power shut-off <a href="https://energyjustice.indiana.edu/research/index.html">reoccurs month after month</a>. In a recent study, we found that over the course of a single year, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac90d7">half of all households</a> whose power was disconnected dealt with disconnections multiple times as they struggled to pay their bills.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman sits on wooden steps outside a door. Two backpacks, one belonging to a small child, sit on the steps beside her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535396/original/file-20230703-203734-ft3kuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535396/original/file-20230703-203734-ft3kuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535396/original/file-20230703-203734-ft3kuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535396/original/file-20230703-203734-ft3kuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535396/original/file-20230703-203734-ft3kuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535396/original/file-20230703-203734-ft3kuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535396/original/file-20230703-203734-ft3kuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman sits outside the NeedLink Nashville offices after filling out an application to avoid losing electricity in 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/melissa-besong-of-nashville-poses-for-a-portrait-outside-of-news-photo/1243291719">William DeShazer for The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Energy insecurity like this is especially <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-020-00763-9">common among low-income Americans</a>, people of color, families with young children, individuals who rely on electronic medical devices or those living in poor housing conditions. During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, we found that Black and Hispanic households were three and four times, respectively, more likely to lose service than white households.</p>
<p>Along with existing financial constraints, people are facing rising electricity rates in many areas, rising inflation and higher temperatures that require cooling. Some also face a history of redlining and poor city planning that has concentrated certain populations in less efficient homes. Taken together, the crisis is apparent.</p>
<h2>Coping strategies can put health at risk</h2>
<p>We have found that over half of all low-income households <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2205356119">engage in some coping strategies</a>, and most of them find they need multiple strategies at once.</p>
<p>They might leave the air conditioner off in summer, allowing the heat to reach uncomfortable and potentially unsafe temperatures to reduce costs. Or they might forgo food or medicine to pay their energy bills, or strategically pay down one bill rather than another, known as “bill balancing.” Others turn to payday loans that might help temporarily but ultimately put them in deeper debt. In our research, we have found that the most common <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535403/original/file-20230703-37566-a194rb.png">coping strategies</a> are also the most risky.</p>
<p><iframe id="GG6Ll" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/GG6Ll/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Once people fall behind on their bills, they are at risk of being disconnected by their utility providers.</p>
<p>The loss of critical energy services may mean that affected people cannot keep their <a href="https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/aps-cut-power-heat-customer-dead-phoenix-summer-shutoff-11310515">homes cool</a> – or warm during the winter months – or food refrigerated during any season. Shut-offs may mean that people with illnesses or disabilities cannot keep medicines refrigerated or <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/3637206-regulators-can-save-lives-by-protecting-medically-vulnerable-utility-users/">medical devices charged</a>. And during times of extreme cold or heat, the loss of energy utility services can have <a href="https://www.workers.org/2009/us/shutoff_0730/">deadly consequences</a>.</p>
<h2>Where disconnection rates are highest</h2>
<p>Our research team recently launched the <a href="https://utilitydisconnections.org/">Utility Disconnections Dashboard</a> in which we track utility disconnections in all places where data is available. </p>
<p>In recent years, more states have required regulated utilities across the country to disclose the number of customers they disconnect. However, state regulations only apply to the utilities that they regulate. Public utilities and cooperatives, which serve over 20% of U.S. electricity customers, often aren’t covered. That leaves massive gaps in understanding of the full magnitude of the problem.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535093/original/file-20230630-21-33j7ki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A screengrab of the Utility Disconnections Dashboard shows data from the state of Indiana, where five utilities had more than 2,000 disconnections each due to customers not paying bills on time. Indiana's total was over 32,000 in 2022." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535093/original/file-20230630-21-33j7ki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535093/original/file-20230630-21-33j7ki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535093/original/file-20230630-21-33j7ki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535093/original/file-20230630-21-33j7ki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535093/original/file-20230630-21-33j7ki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535093/original/file-20230630-21-33j7ki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535093/original/file-20230630-21-33j7ki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Utility Disconnections Dashboard shows the number and rate of disconnections by utility in each state.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://utilitydisconnections.org/">Energy Justice Lab</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The data we do have reveals that disconnection rates soar during the summer months and are typically highest in the Southeast – the same states that were <a href="https://theconversation.com/extreme-heat-and-air-pollution-can-be-deadly-with-the-health-risk-together-worse-than-either-alone-187422">baking under</a> a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-heat-dome-an-atmospheric-scientist-explains-the-weather-phenomenon-baking-texas-and-forecast-to-expand-185569">heat dome in June and July</a> 2023.</p>
<p>Places with particularly high disconnection rates include Alabama, where the city of Dothan’s municipal utility has disconnected an average of 5% of its customers, and Florida, where the city of Tallahassee has a disconnection rate of over 4%.</p>
<p>Large investor-owned utilities in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Indiana also top the charts in disconnections, with average rates near 1%.</p>
<h2>Only 19 states restrict summer shut-offs</h2>
<p>State public utility commissions place certain restrictions on the circumstances when utilities can disconnect customers, but summer heat is often overlooked.</p>
<p>All but a handful of states limit utilities from shutting off customers <a href="http://utilitydisconnections.org/">during winter months</a> or on extremely cold days. Most have at least some medical exemptions.</p>
<p>Yet, the majority of states <a href="https://utilitydisconnections.org/doc/electric-utility-disconnections-legal-protections-and-policy-recommendations.pdf">do not place any limits</a> on utility disconnections during summer months or on very hot days. Only 19 states have such summer protections, which typically take the form of designating time periods or temperatures when customers cannot be disconnected from their service. We believe this is untenable in an era of climate change, as more parts of the country will <a href="https://theconversation.com/saving-lives-from-extreme-heat-lessons-from-the-deadly-2021-pacific-northwest-heat-wave-206737">increasingly experience excessive-heat days</a>.</p>
<p><iframe id="hLGLj" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/hLGLj/9/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>These state-level policies provide a baseline of protection. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.106244">We learned</a> during the COVID-19 pandemic that moratoriums that prohibit utility disconnections can alleviate energy insecurity by establishing a strong mandate against disconnections.</p>
<p>But these policies are highly variable across the country and particularly insufficient during hot summer months. Moreover, customer protections can be difficult for people to find and understand, since the language can be overly convoluted and confusing, placing additional an burden on already vulnerable Americans to discover for themselves how they can avoid losing service.</p>
<h2>Better rules and a new mindset on right to energy</h2>
<p>As we see it, the U.S. needs more robust customer protections, with states, if not the federal government, mandating better disclosure of when and where disconnections occur to identify any systemic biases.</p>
<p>Most of all, we believe Americans need a collective change in mindset about energy access. That should start with a principle that all people should have access to critical energy services and that utilities should only shut off service to customers as a last resort, especially during health-compromising weather events. </p>
<p>The country cannot wait for deadly heat waves to prove how important it is to protect American households.</p>
<p><em>This article, <a href="https://theconversation.com/americas-power-disconnection-crisis-in-31-states-utilities-can-shut-off-electricity-for-nonpayment-in-a-heat-wave-208893">originally published</a> July 5, 2023, was updated July 7 with the June 2023 heat record and more July heat.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208893/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sanya Carley has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for work related to the material discussed in this article.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Konisky has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for work related to the material discussed in this article.</span></em></p>One in 4 American households are at risk of losing power because of the high cost of energy. Over 30% of those disconnections are in summer, when heat gets dangerous.Sanya Carley, Presidential Distinguished Professor of Energy Policy and City Planning, University of PennsylvaniaDavid Konisky, Lynton K. Caldwell Professor, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2076622023-06-21T20:28:01Z2023-06-21T20:28:01ZFor some NBA draftees who overcame adversity, making the transition to fame and fortune is no slam dunk<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533266/original/file-20230621-29-ey9u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C28%2C6325%2C4554&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">NBA rookies must navigate their way over a series of pitfalls.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/man-moves-with-basket-ball-royalty-free-image/872843990?phrase=basketball+professional&adppopup=true">Credit: Jon Enoch Photography Ltd via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When a young athlete is drafted into the NBA – as <a href="https://www.nba.com/news/2023-nba-draft-order">58 players</a> were on <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/37869579/2023-nba-draft-guide-date-how-watch-top-prospects">June 22, 2023</a> – it is often seen as a <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/sports/how-much-money-nba-draft-picks-make">life-changing event</a>. The money makes it so.</p>
<p>Salaries for first-round draft picks this year are projected to range from <a href="https://www.spotrac.com/nba/draft/">about $2.4 million at the low end to $12 million at the very top</a>. That’s a lot of bread for a young person to handle. The <a href="https://www.si.com/nba/draft/newsfeed/2023-nba-draft-breaking-down-the-youngest-draft-eligible-players#gid=ci02bc3aeb50002453&pid=usatsi_20262972">three youngest prospects</a> this year will still be 18 at the time of the draft.</p>
<p>Perhaps for some spectators, the big salaries might seem as if they should cushion the young players from whatever economic hardships or social challenges they may have faced growing up. But through research that I conducted with NBA coaches, NBA union representatives and former NBA players, I discovered that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2021.1958953">it’s not always so easy</a>.</p>
<p>“Poverty is a trauma, and there is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.18043/ncm.79.2.124">lot of data</a> to support that,” one NBA union representative told me. “Men are essentially incentivized to say nothing, be tough, man up, and this mask is what I call invisible tattoos. We’re talking sexual trauma, incarceration, spousal battery, alcohol, or gang violence.”</p>
<p>As I point out in my study, these issues are not necessarily unique to professional basketball players and affect athletes in other sports as well.</p>
<h2>Overnight fortunes</h2>
<p>Through the draft, newly minted NBA players may skyrocket into an astronomically higher tax bracket overnight. But just because they’ve become instant millionaires doesn’t mean they’re going to easily transition into lives of prosperity.</p>
<p>This may be particularly true, I have found, for players who have faced the <a href="https://doi.org/10.18043/ncm.79.2.124">adversity of poverty in childhood</a>, or who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2021.1958953">grew up in low-income communities</a>.</p>
<p>Indeed, one former NBA player, who retired in the late 2010s, told me that rookies may find it difficult to break ties with friends who could derail their careers.</p>
<p>“I will always feel a tight bond to the community in which I was raised, and I know that people from the outside might not understand that,” the player told me. “So, even though my new coaches or agent might tell me to stop hanging with my old friends, it isn’t that simple.”</p>
<p>The player told me that when he was a rookie, what he needed back then was “someone from this new world who actually went through this transition to help because I certainly made a lot of mistakes.” Specifically, he said he found it difficult to sever ties with old acquaintances who were still involved in lives of crime.</p>
<h2>Lessons for new professionals</h2>
<p>It’s not that the NBA is completely oblivious to the need to orient new players on how to comport themselves and handle their newfound fame and fortune. And it’s not like the story of basketball players seeking to overcome adversity is an unfamiliar one, if somewhat of a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690210384660">misleading cultural trope</a>. Researchers have found, for instance, that despite the popular image of NBA players rising from impoverished backgrounds, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690210384660">Most NBA players come from relatively advantaged social origins</a>.” But that’s often not the story that gets told.</p>
<p>As early as 1979, movies like “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079136/">Fast Break</a>” and TV shows like “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077101/">The White Shadow</a>” portrayed the challenges that young players faced off the court. A more recent example is “<a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81046613">Last Chance U: Basketball</a>,” a Netflix docuseries that chronicles the lives of community college basketball players who are <a href="https://theconversation.com/netflix-series-last-chance-u-speaks-to-the-reality-of-athletes-i-study-156095">seeking to go pro despite their difficult pasts</a>, which is one of my focal points of study.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The official Netflix trailer for ‘Last Chance U: Basketball.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The NBA – clearly cognizant of the challenges that young players face – offers a four-day <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2160033-nik-stauskas-biggest-takeaways-from-the-nbas-rookie-transition-program">rookie transition program</a> to get the young athletes acclimated to their new lives as professional basketball players. Among other things, speakers advise the young players to avoid the pitfalls associated with guns, drugs and sexual relationships with groupies.</p>
<p>Some – myself included – question whether the four-day symposium is enough, or whether there needs to be a more sustained effort. Among the skeptics is one former coach of an NBA player who got sent to prison after being convicted of a felony.</p>
<p>“It’s like, we gave you the information and now it’s on you because you are a grown man,” the former coach said. “But even though he was grown, he was still young, and he had lots of chances to make some bad decisions, which he obviously did,” he said of the player who went to prison.</p>
<h2>Between worlds</h2>
<p>One former NBA player told me of a time when he drew attention after he lashed out at someone for stepping on his shoe.</p>
<p>“I was out one night with some teammates and someone stepped on my shoe and I just lost it and I remember everyone looking at me like I was crazy,” the player told me. “The thing is that where I was from, you simply couldn’t let these things pass or else it would make me look weak and then you became a target. In that moment I realized that the same behaviors I learned which allowed me to survive and thrive in my old environment could cause me to get locked up in my new one.”</p>
<p>Through the rookie transition program, players are advised to seek out veteran players for advice. </p>
<p>Ultimately, one former NBA official told me, that may be the best advice.</p>
<p>“If a rookie gets to the NBA and the only place he feels like he belongs is athletically, he is going to revert back to past behaviors because of the trauma he has endured,” the former executive told me. “In these cases, NBA teams need to understand this transition has a lot of underlying issues that very often aren’t addressed.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207662/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rob Book does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With newfound fame and fortune, NBA rookies who come from poverty face a bevy of challenges that threaten to derail their success.Rob Book, Associate Professor of Cultural Sport Psychology, University of Southern DenmarkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2047312023-05-08T12:17:57Z2023-05-08T12:17:57ZMedicaid work requirements would leave more low-income people without health insurance – but this policy is unlikely to pass this time around<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524627/original/file-20230505-6263-k3g9u0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=55%2C7%2C5230%2C2868&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Speaker Kevin McCarthy got the House to approve a package that could reduce the Medicaid program's scale.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/house-speaker-kevin-mccarthy-speaks-about-the-countrys-debt-news-photo/1463574682">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The legislative package the U.S. <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2811/text">House of Representatives passed on April 26, 2023</a>, by a narrow margin would pare federal spending over the next decade while also <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-america-has-a-debt-ceiling-5-questions-answered-164977">raising the debt ceiling</a>. One important measure in the Republican-backed bill would restrict access to Medicaid for millions of Americans.</em></p>
<p><em>About <a href="https://theconversation.com/1-in-4-americans-are-covered-by-medicaid-or-chip-a-program-that-insures-low-income-kids-176424">1 in 4 Americans have health coverage</a> through the program, which primarily serves low-income and disabled people and which is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-2882219">funded jointly by the federal government and the states</a>. Should the Republican-backed legislation prevail, the federal government would require <a href="https://apnews.com/article/senate-hearing-debt-ceiling-bae2b777086b0e232cc0d51fe03a3930">adults insured by Medicaid who are 19 to 55</a> years old and don’t have children or other dependents to spend 80 hours a month doing paid work, job training or community service.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation asked <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=QY68LSIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Simon F. Haeder</a>, a public health scholar, to explain what the proposed work requirements would do and why the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/medicaid-enrollees-removed-review-health-insurance-pandemic-bffc3c67ab2767e4e3cea8250683ea7a">Republican effort to institute them matters</a> for the millions of Americans who rely on Medicaid.</em></p>
<h2>What would change if this policy took effect?</h2>
<p>Unlike some other government programs that assist low-income Americans, including the <a href="https://theconversation.com/snap-work-requirements-dont-actually-get-more-people-working-but-they-do-drastically-limit-the-availability-of-food-aid-204257">Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program</a>, or SNAP, and <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ofa/programs/temporary-assistance-needy-families-tanf">Temporary Assistance for Needy Families</a>, Medicaid currently has no work requirements.</p>
<p>The package the House recently passed would require all states to implement this policy. <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2023-04/59109-Pallone.pdf">An estimated 15 million Americans</a> with Medicaid would need to comply with the requirements.</p>
<p>This change would dramatically increase bureaucratic hassles for Medicaid beneficiaries who are disproportionately low-income, disabled and nonwhite. KFF, a health care research nonprofit, <a href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/tough-tradeoffs-under-republican-work-requirement-plan-some-people-lose-medicaid-or-states-could-pay-to-maintain-coverage/">estimates that 1.7 million</a> people would lose federal coverage. However, states have the option to continue to pay for these individuals solely with state funds.</p>
<p>Those who would be subject to the new rules would not be the only ones at risk. It is well known that many of the exempt populations, including the aged and disabled, <a href="https://www.milkenreview.org/articles/tangled-up-in-side-effects">struggle to complete paperwork</a> or fail to understand complex bureaucratic rules. Many experts predict that coverage losses could be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsr1901772">even higher among these demographics</a>, as states would consider them to be out of compliance with work requirements. </p>
<h2>Are there precedents for this policy?</h2>
<p>This is <a href="https://www.milkenreview.org/articles/tangled-up-in-side-effects">not the first time</a> that Republicans sought to make access to Medicaid contingent on meeting work requirements for at least some beneficiaries. The Trump administration worked with various Republican-led states to use what are known as <a href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/the-landscape-of-medicaid-demonstration-waivers-ahead-of-the-2020-election/">1115 demonstration waivers</a> for that purpose. These waivers allow states to make temporary changes to their Medicaid programs that depart from certain statutory requirements. However, those efforts were <a href="https://www.kff.org/policy-watch/medicaid-work-requirements-at-u-s-supreme-court/">quickly blocked in court</a>. Most were never even piloted before the Biden administration rescinded them.</p>
<p>One exception is Arkansas. </p>
<p>Arkansas began imposing work requirements on Medicaid recipients on adults ages 30 to 49 starting in June 2018. As a result, about <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/health/states-experiences-confirm-harmful-effects-of-medicaid-work-requirements">1 in 4 Arkansans</a> subject to that policy ended up <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsr1901772">losing their coverage by the end of that year</a> before <a href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/an-overview-of-medicaid-work-requirements-what-happened-under-the-trump-and-biden-administrations/">courts deemed it unlawful</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/medicaid-work-requirements-where-do-they-stand-after-the-blue-wave-107762">Arkansas experience</a>, which was particularly burdensome for beneficiaries, reaffirmed many concerns of those who oppose work requirements. Importantly, the reason many lost coverage was not that they failed to complete the required hours of paid work, job training or community service, but that they struggled to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/congress-eyes-work-rules-millions-covered-medicaid-98967684">overcome bureaucratic challenges</a>.</p>
<p>Efforts are also underway in <a href="https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2023/far-reaching-implications-georgia-medicaid-work-experiment">Georgia to impose work requirements</a> on Medicaid beneficiaries despite legal hurdles and the Biden administration’s objections. With President Joe Biden in office, it’s going to remain difficult to experiment with this policy unless Congress approves a measure like the one in the House package.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524626/original/file-20230505-17-jus7is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=71%2C58%2C2910%2C1886&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white woman with short brown hair with her hands holding her face looks sad." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524626/original/file-20230505-17-jus7is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=71%2C58%2C2910%2C1886&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524626/original/file-20230505-17-jus7is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524626/original/file-20230505-17-jus7is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524626/original/file-20230505-17-jus7is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524626/original/file-20230505-17-jus7is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524626/original/file-20230505-17-jus7is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524626/original/file-20230505-17-jus7is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Elizabeth Cloinger lost access to Medicaid in Arkansas despite her eligibility when the state adopted work requirements.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/elizabeth-cloinger-was-tossed-off-of-the-arkansas-works-news-photo/1175367574?adppopup=true">Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>What would be different this time?</h2>
<p>States had to actively seek out those waivers that Republicans embraced when former President Donald Trump was in the White House. That meant that Medicaid beneficiaries in states with Democratic leadership, such as California, were unlikely to ever confront them. </p>
<p>The proposed changes in the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2811/text">House legislation would force all states</a> to implement work requirements for adults from 18 to 55 without dependents. Failure to comply would put states at risk of losing federal funding, so even Democratic-led states would have to adopt these rules. The proposed changes would also circumvent many of the legal concerns that previously prevented the widespread implementation of Medicaid work requirements.</p>
<p>Importantly, this policy change would coincide with <a href="https://osf.io/xzaf4">ongoing upheaval for Medicaid beneficiaries</a>. This is because millions of Medicaid beneficiaries are already losing coverage because of the expiration of the COVID-19 <a href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/10-things-to-know-about-the-unwinding-of-the-medicaid-continuous-enrollment-provision/">public health emergency declaration</a> on May 11 and states’ restarting eligibility determinations of Medicaid beneficiaries <a href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/10-things-to-know-about-the-unwinding-of-the-medicaid-continuous-enrollment-provision/">on April 1</a>. As long as the government’s continuous enrollment policy was in effect, <a href="https://osf.io/xzaf4">states couldn’t kick anyone off of Medicaid</a>.</p>
<p>The number of people covered by the program soared to <a href="https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/program-information/medicaid-and-chip-enrollment-data/report-highlights/index.html">93 million as of January 2023</a>.</p>
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<h2>Is this policy compatible with the purpose of Medicaid?</h2>
<p>The point of Medicaid has always been providing eligible low-income people with <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title19/1901.htm">access to comprehensive health coverage</a> for as long as they need it. That is, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-10637708">Medicaid is exclusively a health insurance program</a>.</p>
<p>Some other safety net programs are supposed to achieve multiple goals. For example, the official mission of <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ofa/programs/tanf/about">Temporary Assistance for Needy Families</a> is to “end the dependence of needy parents on government benefits by promoting job preparation, work and marriage,” rather than just to help those needy parents make ends meet.</p>
<p>At the same time, there is evidence that <a href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/the-relationship-between-work-and-health-findings-from-a-literature-review/">Medicaid leads to greater workforce participation</a>, because it provides affordable health coverage as well as access to needed medical care. If you have an illness, it can be much easier to stay on the job if you’re getting the treatment your condition requires. Indeed, <a href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/understanding-the-intersection-of-medicaid-work-a-look-at-what-the-data-say/">most able-bodied adults on Medicaid are employed</a>.</p>
<p>Ironically, pushing people off Medicaid, either for failing to fulfill work requirements or because they struggle with navigating the bureaucracy, would likely <a href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/the-relationship-between-work-and-health-findings-from-a-literature-review/">reduce the number of people who work</a>.</p>
<h2>Why is this significant?</h2>
<p>It seems unlikely that Medicaid work requirements will become law in 2023 or 2024, because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-8802198">Democrats have steadfastly opposed</a> their implementation and the party commands a majority in the Senate. However, given the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-materials/2021/10/06/life-after-default/">potentially dramatic implications of defaulting on the federal debt</a>, some Democrats may be willing to compromise.</p>
<p>For now, I think it’s far more likely that the Republicans in Congress are setting the stage for future efforts to make more public assistance programs contingent on complying with work requirements, especially the next time a Republican becomes the president of the United States.</p>
<p>If measures like the one the House passed as part of the Republican debt-ceiling package were to become law, even states with entrenched Democratic leadership could have little recourse to fight back.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204731/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon F. Haeder receives funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.</span></em></p>Adults insured by Medicaid who are 19 to 55 years old and don’t have children or other dependents would need to spend 80 hours a month doing paid work, job training or community service.Simon F. Haeder, Associate Professor of Public Health, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1833232022-05-20T12:14:09Z2022-05-20T12:14:09Z1 in 6 US kids are in families below the poverty line<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464062/original/file-20220518-12-5acnqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=104%2C45%2C4271%2C2453&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The official child poverty rate is about the same today as in 1967.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/building-blocks-royalty-free-image/476743677">More Than Words Photography by Alisa Brouwer/Moment Open via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464069/original/file-20220518-17-wpldb1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464069/original/file-20220518-17-wpldb1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464069/original/file-20220518-17-wpldb1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464069/original/file-20220518-17-wpldb1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464069/original/file-20220518-17-wpldb1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464069/original/file-20220518-17-wpldb1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464069/original/file-20220518-17-wpldb1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464069/original/file-20220518-17-wpldb1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>In the United States, <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.html">children are more likely to experience poverty</a> than people over 18.</p>
<p>In 2020, about 1 in 6 kids, <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.html">16% of all children</a>, were living in families with incomes below the official poverty line – an income threshold the government set that year at about <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-poverty-thresholds.html">US$26,500 for a family of four</a>. Only 10% of Americans ages 18 to 64 and 9% of those 65 and up were experiencing poverty, according to the most recent data available. </p>
<p>The official child poverty rate <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.21963">ticks down when the economy grows and up during downturns</a>. It stood at 17% in 1967 – just about the same as in 2020. In many recent years the rate hovered even higher – around 20%. </p>
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<h2>Another way to measure poverty</h2>
<p>Researchers <a href="https://www.census.gov/topics/income-poverty/poverty/guidance/poverty-measures.html">calculate the official poverty rate</a> by adding up a household’s income and comparing it with a threshold of what is needed to survive.</p>
<p>The government has calculated this rate the same way <a href="https://www.census.gov/topics/income-poverty/poverty/about/history-of-the-poverty-measure.html">since the 1960s</a>. </p>
<p>One of its shortcomings is that it <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2021/09/difference-between-supplemental-and-official-poverty-measures.html">excludes several sources of income</a>, including tax credits and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/snap-benefits-are-rising-for-millions-of-americans-thanks-to-a-long-overdue-thrifty-food-plan-update-167876">Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program</a>, which are intended to reduce poverty. </p>
<p>In 2011, the government began to calculate an alternative metric: <a href="https://www.census.gov/topics/income-poverty/supplemental-poverty-measure.html">the supplemental poverty measure</a>. It includes SNAP and tax credits. It also uses thresholds based on the cost of living in different areas of the country. For a family of four, <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-275.html">this threshold</a> currently ranges from $24,000 to $35,000, depending on where a family lives and whether they own or rent housing.</p>
<p>According to this alternative measure, 10% of children were living in poverty in 2020, the lowest rate ever recorded. </p>
<p>Depending on <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v75n3/v75n3p55.html">which measure you use</a>, either 7 million or 11.7 million U.S. children lived in poverty in 2020.</p>
<p>By both metrics, poverty is <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.html">higher for children of color</a>. The <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.html">official poverty rate</a> for Black children stood at 26%, and 23% for Hispanic children, while for white, non-Hispanic children it was 10%. </p>
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<h2>Before and after 2020</h2>
<p>Both child poverty rates had been declining before the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.html">official rate dipped to 14%</a> in 2019 from 21% five years earlier. It shot back up to 16% in 2020, when the pandemic compounded economic hardships for many families.</p>
<p>The supplemental measure of child poverty tells a more complete story.</p>
<p>Steps the government took during the pandemic, including its series of <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-275.html">economic impact payments</a>, the <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/aji/briefs/20412.html">child tax credit expansion</a> and a <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=102273">boost in SNAP benefits</a>, led the supplemental child poverty rate to keep declining even during the economic crisis.</p>
<p>The government will release its child poverty data for 2022 in <a href="https://cps.ipums.org/cps/release_dates.shtml">September 2023</a>. But some researchers at Columbia University have monthly data suggesting that <a href="https://www.povertycenter.columbia.edu/forecasting-monthly-poverty-data">child poverty rose steeply</a> after the expiration of the pandemic-era programs. They estimate that <a href="https://www.povertycenter.columbia.edu/news-internal/monthly-poverty-january-2022">3.7 million more children were living in poverty</a> in January 2022 than in December 2021 because of the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/millions-kids-thrust-back-poverty-child-tax-credit-expired-s-rcna13450">expiration of the child tax credit expansion</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183323/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Callie Freitag receives funding from the Center for Financial Security at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather D. Hill currently has research funding from the Perigee Fund and the Center for Financial Security at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. </span></em></p>An alternative approach to measuring poverty detected a decline in 2021, amid a surge in government support for low-income families.Callie Freitag, Ph.D. Candidate in Public Policy and Governance, University of WashingtonHeather D. Hill, Professor of Public Policy and Governance, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1767782022-03-14T12:22:36Z2022-03-14T12:22:36ZAffordable housing in the US is increasingly scarce, making renters ask: Where do we go?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451075/original/file-20220309-1737-4p8f7j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Community organizers speak in a vacant house in West Oakland, Calif., that they occupied in 2019 and 2020 to bring attention to affordable housing.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/moms-4-housing-founder-dominique-walker-and-others-talk-in-the-dining-picture-id1199390012?s=2048x2048">Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The United States is facing an expanding gap between how much workers earn and how much they have to pay for housing. </p>
<p>Workers have faced <a href="https://hbr.org/2017/10/why-wages-arent-growing-in-america">stagnant wages</a> for the past 40 years. Yet the cost of rent has steadily increased during that time, with <a href="https://www.redfin.com/news/redfin-rental-report-december-2021/">sharp increases of 14% to 40% </a> over the past two years. </p>
<p>Now, more than ever, workers are feeling the stress of the affordable housing crisis. </p>
<p>While I was conducting research in economically hard-hit communities from Appalachia to Oakland, California, for my recent <a href="https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=living-on-the-edge-when-hard-times-become-a-way-of-life--9781509548231">book, published in November 2021</a>, nearly every person I met was experiencing the painful reality of being caught between <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/blog/rents-have-risen-more-than-incomes-in-nearly-every-state-since-2001">virtually stagnant wages and rising housing costs</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://cmpascale.org/">As a sociologist,</a> I had expected that low-wage workers would struggle with the cost of housing. I did not expect to meet people who worked two jobs and lived with roommates and still struggled to pay their bills. </p>
<p>For perspective, a person making US$14 an hour would have to work 89 hours a week to cover the rent on a “modest” one-bedroom rental, estimated to cost $1,615 per month, according to a <a href="https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/oor/2021/Out-of-Reach_2021.pdf">2021 study by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition</a>. </p>
<p>Millions of workers earn less than $14 an hour. Among U.S. employees, the average hourly earnings, adjusted for inflation, were only <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/216259/monthly-real-average-hourly-earnings-for-all-employees-in-the-us/#:%7E:text=In%20January%202022%2C%20the%20average,data%20have%20been%20seasonally%20adjusted">$11.22 in 2022</a>. </p>
<p>In January 2022, median rents in the U.S. reached their highest level yet. <a href="https://www.realtor.com/research/january-2022-rent/">The average median cost</a> of one-bedroom units in the 50 largest metro areas rose from $1,386 in 2020 to $1,652 in 2022.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451084/original/file-20220309-15-8rxxu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man is shown outside of a moving truck, next to a row of new attached houses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451084/original/file-20220309-15-8rxxu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451084/original/file-20220309-15-8rxxu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451084/original/file-20220309-15-8rxxu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451084/original/file-20220309-15-8rxxu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451084/original/file-20220309-15-8rxxu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451084/original/file-20220309-15-8rxxu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451084/original/file-20220309-15-8rxxu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New affordable housing units in Irvine, Calif., are shown on Jan. 26, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/residents-start-to-move-into-sage-park-irvines-new-affordable-housing-picture-id1238006154?s=2048x2048">Mindy Schauer/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Now I’m having to scrounge’</h2>
<p>I interviewed PL (a pseudonym) for my recent book. He is <a href="https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/calendar/americas-rental-housing-2022">among the 44 million</a> people in the U.S. who rent their homes.</p>
<p>PL is a longtime Oakland, California, resident, who works full time in a professional career. Despite employment stability, his financial circumstances are worsening.</p>
<p>“Rent is raised dramatically from year to year. I work in a nonprofit organization, so I don’t get a raise every year,” PL told me during an interview in 2018. His monthly rent increased by $250 over the previous three years. Yet his salary remained static. </p>
<p>“That $250 was going toward the grocery bills, the gas bills. Now I’m having to scrounge,” PL said. </p>
<p>PL is not alone.</p>
<p>Households that spend more than 30% of their income on rent are referred to as “cost burdened,” according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 2019, <a href="https://www.habitat.org/costofhome/2020-state-nations-housing-report-lack-affordable-housing">37.1 million households</a>, or 30.2% of all U.S. households, fit this category. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/affordable-housing-in-pandemic-times-what-works-and-what-doesnt-177699">situation has worsened</a> since the pandemic.</p>
<p>The financial burden of the increasing cost of rent falls hardest on the <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/netcomp.cgi?year=2019">half of workers in the U.S. who earn less than $35,000</a> each year. After paying rent, about 80% of renter households with incomes under $30,000 have between <a href="https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/calendar/americas-rental-housing-2022">$360 and $490 left to cover all other</a> expenses, including food, health care, transportation and child care. </p>
<h2>Where can you live?</h2>
<p>Oakland has been described by gentrification experts as the new center of the nationwide <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/03/we-are-fed-up-new-surge-of-housing-activism-spurs-change-in-oakland/">affordable housing crisis</a>. </p>
<p>A growing tech industry in San Francisco, a lack of affordable housing, weak rent control laws and a predominance of low-wage service industry jobs contribute to the shortage of affordable housing in Oakland. </p>
<p>Vanessa Torres is one of the more than 15,000 people who live in a low-income neighborhood in Oakland known as “the Deep East.” When I spoke with Torres in 2020, the worry in her voice was clear.</p>
<p>“This is the ‘hood. If low-income Latinos can’t afford it anymore, well where do we go? If we can no longer afford to live in low-income communities that are considered dangerous, that are considered poor, then where do we see ourselves?” Torres said. </p>
<p>In 2019, <a href="https://www.zumper.com/rent-research/oakland-ca/downtown-oakland">the midpoint</a> for monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Oakland was $2,300. </p>
<p>Torres would need to earn almost $50 per hour, approximately $96,000 a year, to be able to afford $2,300 a month in rent, according to the <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/expensive-san-francisco/article/San-Francisco-rent-wages-median-Oakland-Alameda-12879211.php">nonprofit California Housing Partnership Corp.</a>. Torres earns roughly $50,000 a year as an educator. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451149/original/file-20220309-15-1my4t3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man walks past a building with graffiti, in front of tents and boxes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451149/original/file-20220309-15-1my4t3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451149/original/file-20220309-15-1my4t3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451149/original/file-20220309-15-1my4t3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451149/original/file-20220309-15-1my4t3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451149/original/file-20220309-15-1my4t3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451149/original/file-20220309-15-1my4t3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451149/original/file-20220309-15-1my4t3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">California has one of the highest homeless rates in the country. Here, a man walks past tents in Los Angeles on April 26, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/man-walks-past-tents-housing-the-homeless-on-the-streets-in-the-skid-picture-id1232545986?s=2048x2048">Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Still seeking solutions</h2>
<p>Elected officials across the country have tried to address the affordable housing crisis through proposals to raise the <a href="https://edlabor.house.gov/imo/media/doc/2021-01-26%20Raise%20the%20Wage%20Act%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf">minimum wage</a> and to mandate more meaningful <a href="https://www.multihousingnews.com/a-deep-dive-into-growing-rent-control-laws-proposals/">rent control</a>. They have also proposed greater government investment in <a href="https://joebiden.com/housing/">affordable housing</a>, and pursued <a href="https://inclusionaryhousing.org/inclusionary-housing-explained/what-is-inclusionary-housing/#:%7E:text=Inclusionary%20housing%20programs%20are%20local,units%20to%20lower%2Dincome%20residents.">partnerships with developers</a>. As yet, none of these efforts has been successful to any significant extent. </p>
<p>Countries with more government control over the economy have taken a different approach to affordable housing. For example, <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a99206bee17593d9ef5cceb/t/5f609207aed573278ae41bc4/1600164570274/NBO+%E2%80%93+Housing+Nordic_Housing+models+in+the+Nordic+Region.pdf">Nordic countries</a> treat the development of low- and medium-cost housing as a public utility. This <a href="https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.32.1.59">reduces and stabilizes</a> housing prices by removing the cost of land, construction, finance and management from the speculative market. They have succeeded in producing quality housing that is subsidized and permanently price restricted. </p>
<p>Known as <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a99206bee17593d9ef5cceb/t/5f609207aed573278ae41bc4/1600164570274/NBO+%E2%80%93+Housing+Nordic_Housing+models+in+the+Nordic+Region.pdf">social housing</a> in Denmark, this strategy has produced 20% of the total available housing there. </p>
<p>Given the affordable housing problems in the U.S., taking stock of other options could provide some inspiration.</p>
<p>For PL, the Oakland renter feeling the squeeze of rising rents, as well as for many other full-time workers, the future doesn’t look any better. PL, who is in his mid-50s, told me he doesn’t see a way to retire. He would need to leave his community in order to retire, but he can’t imagine where he would go. The East Bay is his home. </p>
<p>[<em>More than 150,000 readers get one of The Conversation’s informative newsletters.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140K">Join the list today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176778/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Celine-Marie Pascale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s getting much harder in the US to find an affordable home, even for people who work multiple jobs.Celine-Marie Pascale, Professor of Sociology, American UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1748802022-02-09T13:23:34Z2022-02-09T13:23:34ZDisasters can wipe out affordable housing for years unless communities plan ahead – the loss hurts the entire local economy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442025/original/file-20220121-19-uqha1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C3000%2C1980&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Slow recovery for vulnerable households can slow the recovery of the entire community.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/james-strickland-stands-on-the-porch-of-his-fathers-home-news-photo/1358601400">Scott Olson/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The tornadoes and wildfires that devastated communities from <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/13/us/kentucky-tornadoes-storms-monday/index.html">Kentucky</a> to <a href="https://www.bouldercounty.org/disasters/wildfires/marshall/">Colorado</a> in the final weeks of 2021 left thousands of people displaced or homeless. For many of them, it will be months if not years before their homes are rebuilt.</p>
<p>That’s especially hard on low-income residents.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hILMtUQAAAAJ&hl=en">professor of urban planning</a>, I study the impact of disasters on affordable housing, resilience and recovery. The losses of hundreds of homes in towns across the Midwest and in Boulder County, Colorado, show two sides of that impact and illustrate why communities need to plan now to protect their most vulnerable residents as their towns recover. In doing so, they also protect their economies.</p>
<h2>Why low-income households face higher risks</h2>
<p>Middle- and low-income households tend to occupy the riskiest homes in communities for a few key reasons.</p>
<p>First, land values tend to be lower in areas that are risky or otherwise less desirable, such as low-lying areas that are known to flood, near toxic facilities or in outlying areas that fail to enforce codes designed to protect homes. The housing that gets built there tends to be more affordable.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman and teenager stand outside a damaged house." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442618/original/file-20220125-21-1lwxb0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442618/original/file-20220125-21-1lwxb0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442618/original/file-20220125-21-1lwxb0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442618/original/file-20220125-21-1lwxb0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442618/original/file-20220125-21-1lwxb0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442618/original/file-20220125-21-1lwxb0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442618/original/file-20220125-21-1lwxb0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘It could happen anywhere, but I just never thought here,’ said Chasity Walton, whose home in Mayfield, Kentucky, was hit by a tornado on Dec. 15, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/chasity-walton-and-her-son-kvon-hardaway-walk-away-from-news-photo/1359227009">Brandon Bell/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second, as communities grow, older homes become more affordable through a process called “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X9101100106">filtering</a>,” where wealthier households move into newer housing, leaving older, more dilapidated homes available for lower-income households. Older <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X14531828">homes were often built under less stringent building codes</a> and typically are less-well maintained, which can make them more physically vulnerable.</p>
<p>Third, durable patterns of historical segregation and ongoing discrimination in real estate and lending can compound these problems by limiting Black and Hispanic families’ ability to afford lower-risk neighborhoods.</p>
<p>Research has shown consistently that lower-income households are not only <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2011.624528">more likely to suffer damage in a natural disaster</a>, but they are more likely to take <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2014.980440">much longer – two to three times longer – to recover</a>.</p>
<p>Poverty and other household characteristics, such as being headed by a single mother, having racial or ethnic minority status, low levels of education, a disability, or renting rather than owning one’s home, define what <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203714775/risk-ben-wisner-piers-blaikie-terry-cannon-ian-davis">researchers call “social vulnerability</a>.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man with a can sits on cabinets in what remains of his kitchen after a tornado. The roof and walls are gone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442642/original/file-20220125-21-1fh4apn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442642/original/file-20220125-21-1fh4apn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442642/original/file-20220125-21-1fh4apn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442642/original/file-20220125-21-1fh4apn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442642/original/file-20220125-21-1fh4apn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442642/original/file-20220125-21-1fh4apn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442642/original/file-20220125-21-1fh4apn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Research shows that socially vulnerable households have less capacity to prepare for and respond to disasters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/bogdan-gaicki-surveys-tornado-damage-after-extreme-weather-news-photo/1237193981">Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The location and quality of housing, combined with the vulnerability of residents, means that those most affected by disasters are often those least able to recover from them.</p>
<h2>Slow recovery affects the entire community</h2>
<p>Communities need to understand that slow recovery for vulnerable households can slow the recovery of the overall community.</p>
<p>Researchers have found that <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0042098011428178">housing recovery is strongly linked to business recovery</a>. Workers need housing so they can return to work, and businesses need workers so they can resume operations.</p>
<p>Rockport, Texas, where Hurricane Harvey made landfall in 2017, offers a cautionary tale. <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2018/08/24/hurricane-harvey-year-later-rockport-cant-find-housing-evacuees/">A year after the hurricane</a>, hotels and restaurants – even those that were part of national chains – struggled to reopen for Rockport’s critical tourist season due to the loss of affordable housing for workers. Many of those workers had relocated to San Antonio, two and a half hours away.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1476909270302027777"}"></div></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in sweatpants and no shoes appears distraught standing in the parking lot of a damaged motel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442644/original/file-20220125-23-1p2rfah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442644/original/file-20220125-23-1p2rfah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442644/original/file-20220125-23-1p2rfah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442644/original/file-20220125-23-1p2rfah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442644/original/file-20220125-23-1p2rfah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442644/original/file-20220125-23-1p2rfah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442644/original/file-20220125-23-1p2rfah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When rental properties are destroyed by disasters, workers who keep local restaurants and businesses running often have little choice but to leave.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/resident-of-the-the-cardinal-inn-in-bowling-green-kentucky-news-photo/1237166139">Gunnar Word/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Many homes can’t be replaced for the same price</h2>
<p>Housing recovery typically gets left to the market. For homeowning households with good insurance, the market works reasonably well. But for lower-income households, including renters, it can be difficult to return to their homes or even their original neighborhoods.</p>
<p>In depressed markets with low-value homes, like many of those impacted by the December tornadoes in Kentucky and the Midwest, replacement values are not enough to rebuild equivalent housing. Home values in these areas may average under US$100,000. It is nearly impossible to build a home for that today.</p>
<p>Hot markets like Boulder County, Colorado, face a different challenge. Rebuilding in those markets allows developers and speculators to take advantage of redevelopment opportunities. Research suggests that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01944363.2014.980440">affordable housing will almost always be replaced by more expensive housing</a> targeted to a wealthier demographic. And for low-income residents who rent and lose their homes to disasters, there is little chance that they will be able to return to their original development. Little is known about where they end up.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442645/original/file-20220125-21-klgkby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An aerial view of a neighborhood mostly reduced to rubble with the exception of one home." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442645/original/file-20220125-21-klgkby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442645/original/file-20220125-21-klgkby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442645/original/file-20220125-21-klgkby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442645/original/file-20220125-21-klgkby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442645/original/file-20220125-21-klgkby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442645/original/file-20220125-21-klgkby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442645/original/file-20220125-21-klgkby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The fire in Boulder County, Colorado, wiped out entire neighborhoods in December 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-aerial-view-burned-homes-sit-in-a-neighborhood-news-photo/1237535171">Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Safety nets exist but are inadequate.</p>
<p>Short-term assistance from <a href="https://www.fema.gov/assistance/individual">FEMA’s Individual Assistance Program</a> helps displaced households find temporary housing and make repairs to homes that qualify. Assistance can also come from <a href="https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/comm_planning/cdbg">Community Development Block Grants</a> from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but these funds take months and even years to arrive, and spending plans submitted by states often misdirect funds and have almost no oversight.</p>
<h2>What can be done?</h2>
<p>What then, can be done to ensure vulnerable residents can rebuild and return? A few communities have tried new ideas.</p>
<p>La Grange, Texas, which flooded during Hurricane Harvey in 2017, <a href="https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/189335">is experimenting with community land trusts</a>. These involve cooperative ownership of land coupled with individual ownership of units. Residents must occupy the unit for a prescribed period of time and gain only a small percentage of increases in land value, with the rest going to the co-op. This approach allows residents to pool resources for land purchases and maintains affordability over time.</p>
<p>Boulder County <a href="https://boulderreportinglab.org/2022/01/13/boulder-emergency-order-relaxing-rental-requirements-marshall-fire/">relaxed its rental rules</a> to help displaced residents find temporary homes after the fire. </p>
<p>Monitoring recovery funds closely is also important to ensure they help those most in need. Following the 2008 Hurricanes Ike and Dolly, the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service, now called Texas Housers, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=r5C_DQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT10&dq=info:AMlQbxPM9eoJ:scholar.google.com&ots=JbwjyfHvXA&sig=MhBCeiKi6U0nNq20iUjE5Sf_qIk#v=onepage&q&f=false">sued the State of Texas</a>, claiming the state recovery plan failed to address the needs of the most vulnerable Texans. The resulting agreement brought an additional $3 billion in aid, and ongoing monitoring of funding has ensured it helped rebuild hundreds of homes for low-income families.</p>
<p>Nearly every community in the United States is increasingly vulnerable to some kind of natural disaster due to climate change. A Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/01/05/climate-disasters-2021-fires/">analysis of federal disaster declarations</a> found that 40% of Americans lived in counties that were hit with extreme climate-related weather in 2021 alone.</p>
<p>Planning disaster recovery to ensure that the most vulnerable members of communities can return will result in greater resilience and community vitality.</p>
<p>[<em>Learn more: Watch The Conversation’s <a href="https://youtu.be/VZrAENmklLk">climate change adaptation webinar</a> with Shannon Van Zandt.</em>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174880/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shannon Van Zandt's research on housing and disasters has been funded by the National Science Foundation. She is also affiliated with Texas Housers as a member of the board; she receives no remuneration for this service.</span></em></p>The most affordable homes face the highest risks from disasters for three key reasons.Shannon Van Zandt, Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1662512021-11-10T13:39:40Z2021-11-10T13:39:40ZThe federal poverty line struggles to capture the economic hardship that half of Americans face<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429733/original/file-20211102-29191-p6bxrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=251%2C242%2C2452%2C1302&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Low-wage workers march in Washington on Aug. 2, 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-poor-peoples-campaign-rallied-and-marched-in-washington-news-photo/1234447749?adppopup=true">Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Michael Chase works two jobs in southeast Ohio: one as a hotel night clerk and one as retail support – sorting through donations, setting new merchandise out, cleaning – at a nonprofit. </p>
<p>His schedule is not fixed in either job, and his hours are not guaranteed. Some weeks he works back-to-back eight-hour shifts. Some weeks he works fewer than 30 hours. Neither job offers sick leave, vacation time or health insurance. </p>
<p>Chase shares an apartment with three other people, something he finds stressful. And he is not always confident that he can make his portion of the rent. Between the two jobs, Chase earns less than US$16,000 a year. While it may not sound like a lot, that places him well above the federal <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines">poverty line for a single person</a>: $12,760. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://cmpascale.org/">sociologist</a> concerned with inequality, I spent one year conducting field work and interviews across the country for <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351391040_Living_on_the_Edge_When_Hard_Times_Become_A_Way_of_Life">my recent book</a>, which examines how Americans cope with economic struggles amid stagnant wages and rising costs of living.</p>
<p>Nearly everyone I interviewed worked multiple service industry jobs. Yet I didn’t meet anyone who thought of themselves as poor. </p>
<p>More commonly they referred to themselves as the struggling class: They struggle economically and hold an often unfounded hope that things will get better. But you can’t work your way out of poverty in low-wage jobs.</p>
<p>Low-wage jobs in the 21st century are not only the lowest rung on a career ladder, they are often the only rung. </p>
<p>Across the country, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/02/the-7point25-minimum-wage-doesnt-help-families-pay-the-bills-in-any-state.html">millions of low-wage workers</a> like Chase struggle to pay their bills each month, despite holding multiple jobs. </p>
<h2>Defining poverty</h2>
<p>“I’m fine,” Chase told me. “I don’t consider myself poor … I guess I would say I am struggling a little bit. For me, people who don’t have food are poor. Or someone who can’t feed their kids, or you might not have running water or even electricity. You don’t have the right things you need to even survive.” </p>
<p>Chase was not unusual in his assessment of poverty. </p>
<p>The economic struggles of millions in the United States are erased by the federal definition of the poverty line and by outdated conceptions of low-wage work.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2019/11/21/low-wage-work-is-more-pervasive-than-you-think-and-there-arent-enough-good-jobs-to-go-around/">A recent study</a> by the Brookings Institution defined low-wage work as a median hourly wage of $10.22, or $17,950 per year. By this measure, 44% of all workers in the U.S. are low-wage earners. </p>
<p>In 2021, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a worker needs to earn <a href="https://reports.nlihc.org/oor">$20.40 per hour</a> to be able to afford a modest one-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country. That’s an annual salary of $40,800 – more than twice what Brookings refers to as the median wage for low-wage work. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429734/original/file-20211102-54186-m0mg54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Low wage workers protest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429734/original/file-20211102-54186-m0mg54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429734/original/file-20211102-54186-m0mg54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429734/original/file-20211102-54186-m0mg54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429734/original/file-20211102-54186-m0mg54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429734/original/file-20211102-54186-m0mg54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429734/original/file-20211102-54186-m0mg54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429734/original/file-20211102-54186-m0mg54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Low-wage workers and supporters protest for a $15 an hour minimum wage on Nov. 10, 2015 at Foley Square in New York City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/low-wage-workers-and-supporters-protest-for-a-15-an-hour-news-photo/496587478?adppopup=true">Cem Ozdel/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Federal data shows that roughly <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/netcomp.cgi?year=2019">51% or workers</a> live on less than $35,000 annually. Low wages, unreliable hours and a lack of benefits have come to dominate the U.S. economic landscape. </p>
<p>To understand the economic hardship that more than half of Americans face, it is critical that researchers shift their thinking away from an outdated federal measure of poverty. Instead, they should focus on measures of self-sufficiency. </p>
<h2>Economic self sufficiency</h2>
<p>Economic self-sufficiency is the ability to reliably meet basic needs, including food, housing, transportation, child care, medical expenses and other necessities.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.epi.org/about/">Economic Policy Institute</a>, a nonpartisan think tank, provides a <a href="https://www.epi.org/resources/budget/">Family Budget Calculator</a> that calculates measures of economic self-sufficiency across the country. </p>
<p>The organization provides a transparent estimate of what it costs to be economically self-sufficient. It is not a calculation of poverty. </p>
<p>The calculations are based on <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cnpp/usda-food-plans-cost-food-reports">Department of Agriculture data</a> such as food costs and <a href="https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr.html">Fair Market Rent</a>, a measure developed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to determine payments for housing assistance programs. </p>
<p>In southeast Ohio, the self-sufficiency budget for Chase provided by the Economic Policy Institute calculator is $34,545 – more than twice what he earns and nearly three times the federal poverty line. </p>
<p>If Chase lived in San Francisco, his economic self-sufficiency budget would be $69,072. Across the bay in Oakland, California, it would be $57,383. Keep in mind that the federal poverty line for a single person living anywhere in the U.S. is $12,760. </p>
<p>For families, the gap between the federal poverty line and economic self-sufficiency is even wider. Self-sufficiency for two adults with two children who live in San Francisco requires an annual income of $148,440, while the federal poverty line for this same <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines/prior-hhs-poverty-guidelines-federal-register-references/2020-poverty-guidelines/2020-poverty-guidelines-computations">family of four in 2020 was $25,701</a>.</p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/politics-weekly-74/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=politics-important">Get The Conversation’s most important politics headlines, in our Politics Weekly newsletter</a>.</em>]</p>
<p>Self-sufficiency calculations vary by region. For example, self-sufficiency for this same family of four in Athens County, Ohio, would require an income of $72,284; in the Sioux City metro area of South Dakota, this family would need $78,935 to meet all of their basic needs.</p>
<p>Self-sufficiency measures are not perfect. </p>
<p>The Economic Policy Institute calculations do not consider debt, which can be significant. Further, the calculation relies on Fair Market Rent, which designates regional rents in the 40th percentile as fair market. This means that in any area, 60% of housing is more expensive than Fair Market Rent. </p>
<p>For Chase in Ohio, a livable one-bedroom apartment runs $800 to $1,300 a month, but Fair Market Rent allocates only $605 for rent.</p>
<p>Despite these problems, measures of self-sufficiency are more effective than the federal poverty line. By delineating the costs of basic expenses, they draw a far more accurate line of where poverty begins.</p>
<p>It might seem like a matter of common sense that the nation needs to calculate how much families actually need to spend on basic expenses in order to understand where poverty begins. But policymakers still rely on the federal poverty line for calculating economic safety nets. A measure of self-sufficiency would enable the nation to identify levels of economic need as they exist – and therefore to establish effective safety nets.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Celine-Marie Pascale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Millions of Americans struggle to pay their bills each month, despite earning wages well above the federal poverty line and holding multiple jobs.Celine-Marie Pascale, Professor of Sociology, American UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1700742021-10-28T12:44:04Z2021-10-28T12:44:04ZNearly half of all churches and other faith institutions help people get enough to eat<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428335/original/file-20211025-27-lqytf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=171%2C93%2C5020%2C2888&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A church in St. Paul, Minn., distributed food obtained through a USDA program in December 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/food-provided-by-the-usda-and-distributed-through-a-local-news-photo/1295253258">Michael Siluk/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center zoomable">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>Almost half of U.S. congregations participate in some kind of food distribution program. While the government’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/snap-benefits-are-rising-for-millions-of-americans-thanks-to-a-long-overdue-thrifty-food-plan-update-167876">Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program</a> was helping nearly 42 million Americans purchase groceries in mid-2021, those benefits <a href="https://www.urban.org/does-snap-cover-cost-meal-your-county">often don’t cover the full food costs</a> of people facing economic hardship. And not everyone who needs food is eligible for those benefits.</p>
<p>Food banks, food pantries, meal programs and similar initiatives run by churches, synagogues, mosques and other faith-based institutions are among the charitable organizations seeking to fill this gap.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xoHOiQYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">social scientist</a> who studies the economic impact of community-based organizations, I have seen even small efforts by local congregations make an outsized difference for people who are experiencing <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-food-insecurity-152746">food insecurity</a> – meaning they can’t get enough nutritious food to eat.</p>
<p>Building on my <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03670244.2019.1598979">research</a> with <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-5kzwCsAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Karen Flórez</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=Ob-iX5UAAAAJ">Kathryn Derose</a>, I have tracked the important role congregations play in getting food to the people who need it. I analyzed data collected through the <a href="https://sites.duke.edu/ncsweb/">National Congregations Study</a> – a nationally representative survey of congregations.</p>
<p>This data indicates that in 2018, <a href="https://www.thearda.com/ncs/ncs2018/year_sfood18.asp">48% of U.S. congregations</a> either had their own food-distribution program or supported efforts run by another organization, such as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-food-banks-help-americans-who-have-trouble-getting-enough-to-eat-148150">food bank</a> or food pantry. That’s over 150,000 congregations.</p>
<p>Unlike government programs, these faith-based efforts generally provide help immediately to anyone who shows up, with no questions asked. For example, the Laboratory Church in Indianapolis runs <a href="https://www.thelaboratorychurch.org/4keeps-mobile-pantry">a mobile food pantry</a>. Like most congregation-based food programs, it requires “no qualifications” or extensive paperwork to receive food.</p>
<h2>Growing needs</h2>
<p>The share of households in this country experiencing food insecurity has ranged from <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=63492">10% to 15%</a> since 1995. Surprisingly, the problem did not worsen in 2020 despite the economic upheaval triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The share of food-insecure households <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/key-statistics-graphics.aspx">stood at 10.5%</a> in 2020, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/government-and-charitable-actions-likely-kept-millions-of-americans-out-of-food-insecurity-during-the-pandemic-167505">same level as a year earlier</a>. </p>
<p>One major reason why food insecurity didn’t grow was that the government stepped up. It distributed several rounds of <a href="https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2021/03/heres-everything-congress-has-done-to-respond-to-the-coronavirus-so-far">relief and stimulus payments</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/snap-benefits-cost-a-total-of-85-6b-in-the-2020-fiscal-year-amid-heightened-us-poverty-and-unemployment-148077">spent more on SNAP</a> and expanded <a href="https://www.lawandtheworkplace.com/2020/04/cares-act-expands-unemployment-insurance-benefits/">unemployment benefits</a>.</p>
<p>That aid increase is now drying up. The federal government <a href="https://time.com/nextadvisor/in-the-news/what-happens-after-unemployment-benefits-end/">ended the extra jobless benefits</a> that were keeping many families afloat. States are also starting to put SNAP benefits back on a sliding scale, rather than giving everyone who gets them <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/states-are-using-much-needed-temporary-flexibility-in-snap-to-respond-to">the maximum level allowed</a>.</p>
<p>With additional help waning and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/why-is-inflation-rising-right-now/">inflation rising</a>, the Biden administration is boosting aid to those in need by permanently <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/01/politics/food-stamps-snap-increase/index.html">increasing the average SNAP benefits</a> above pre-pandemic levels. </p>
<p>However, that change won’t help people who aren’t eligible for those benefits, including <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/a-quick-guide-to-snap-eligibility-and-benefits">immigrants and refugees</a> who have been in the country legally for less than five years.</p>
<p>Some congregations focus on serving immigrants by providing legal assistance, language instruction or help finding jobs. These congregations are the most likely to have food programs: <a href="https://www.thearda.com/ncs/ncs2018/immserv_sfood18.asp">66%</a> of them are addressing food needs, compared to 48% nationally.</p>
<h2>On a scale small and large</h2>
<p>Congregational food programs come in all sizes.</p>
<p>Consider Crossroads Community Baptist Church in Whitley City, Kentucky, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/01/25/poorest-counties-in-the-us-median-household-income/38870175/">one of the poorest communities</a> in America. The population of this <a href="https://lifewayresearch.com/2018/01/30/small-town-big-mission/">Appalachian town</a> is about 1,200 people, and the church’s food ministry, <a href="http://www.crossroadscommunitybc.org/the-lord-s-cafe">the Lord’s Café</a>, gives free groceries to about 400 families. Also, when local kids are out of school in the summer, it feeds lunch to 250 children a day, three days a week. </p>
<p>The Crossroads Church in Cincinnati, a <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/03/its-a-big-deal-that-megachurches-like-crossroads-church-are-canceling-live-services.html">megachurch</a>, operates on a bigger scale. It plans to deliver more than <a href="https://www.crossroads.net/go/events/thanksgiving-food-drive/">100,000 Thanksgiving meals</a> to those in need in 2021. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 115,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>And Christian churches aren’t the only faith-based groups stepping up to feed the hungry. At the East Plano Islamic Center in Texas, local residents can pick up what they need from a <a href="https://epicmasjid.org/food-pantry/">drive-thru food pantry</a> every Saturday. Similarly, Temple Beth Shalom in Austin, Texas, a <a href="https://reformjudaism.org/">Reform Jewish congregation</a>, partners with <a href="https://www.bethshalomaustin.org/action/mow">Meals on Wheels</a> to deliver meals to homebound, disabled and other people who need them.</p>
<p>These efforts are motivated by compassion for the hungry. As the economy bounces back, the government will keep playing a vital role in meeting the needs of Americans. So will thousands of local congregations whose efforts and impact often go unacknowledged.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170074/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brad R. Fulton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Congregations can help bridge gaps left by government programs, especially for many immigrants and others who are not eligible for SNAP benefits.Brad R. Fulton, Associate Professor of Nonprofit Management, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1705162021-10-28T12:34:07Z2021-10-28T12:34:07ZState spending on anti-poverty programs could substantially reduce child abuse and neglect<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428868/original/file-20211027-23-7v8rbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2075%2C1377&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Public spending aimed at reducing poverty can lead to deep reductions in child maltreatment and could improve overall child well-being. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/father-and-son-going-to-kindergarten-royalty-free-image/1288962069?adppopup=true">shih-wei/ E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>States’ financial investments in public benefit programs for low-income families are associated with less child abuse and neglect, also known as maltreatment. These investments are also associated with less need for foster care and maltreatment-related deaths, according to our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2021-050685">recent publication in the journal Pediatrics</a>.</p>
<p>Our research team included the two of us – <a href="https://www.childrensmercy.org/profiles/hank-t-puls/">Hank Puls</a>, a pediatrician who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=qkBLs3YAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">conducts research on the prevention of child maltreatment</a>, and <a href="https://medschool.kp.org/about/leadership/paul-chung">Paul Chung</a>, who studies childhood determinants of adult health – as well as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8o47xsAAAAAJ&hl=en">Matthew Hall</a>, <a href="https://www.childrensmercy.org/profiles/james-d-anderst/">James Anderst</a>, <a href="https://www.kumc.edu/tgurley-calvez.html">Tami Gurley</a> and <a href="https://www.massgeneral.org/children/research/james-perrin">James Perrin</a>. </p>
<p>Our study examined the relationship between states’ rates of child maltreatment and their annual spending per person in poverty on major benefit programs from 2010 to 2017. Benefit programs included those providing cash, housing or material resources, childcare assistance, refundable earned income tax credits and medical assistance programs such as Medicaid. </p>
<p>Our findings indicate that an increase of US$1,000, or 13%, in annual spending per person in poverty on these programs by all 50 states and Washington, D.C., might be associated with approximately 181,000 fewer children reported for maltreatment, 28,500 fewer victims, 4,100 fewer children entering foster care and 130 fewer children dying – every year.</p>
<p>Our results also suggest that reductions in child maltreatment might provide fiscal returns in the long term for states and society. The 13% increase in spending amounted to $46.5 billion nationally. We estimate these reductions might return $1.5 billion to $9.3 billion in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.09.018">avoided economic burdens associated with maltreatment</a> in the short term, but as much as $25.8 billion to $153.2 billion over the course of children’s lives.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Child maltreatment is a public health crisis. By 18 years of age, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2014.410">at least 1 in 8 U.S. children</a> will have experienced abuse or neglect. This leads to poorer <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61706-7">overall health and mental health</a>, as well as worse <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.12.022">socioeconomic outcomes</a>, for those individuals and society.</p>
<p>We believe that our study serves as an example of how benefit programs might have positive effects beyond their stated objectives. Benefit programs likely have powerful, broad and unmeasured effects on a host of health issues – the combined impacts of which might dwarf those found for child maltreatment alone. </p>
<p>For example, Medicaid expansion improves <a href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/report/the-effects-of-medicaid-expansion-under-the-aca-updated-findings-from-a-literature-review/">health care access</a> and some <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2019.12345">health</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2021.00776">mental health</a> outcomes. Medicaid also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0331">significantly reduces poverty</a> and can reduce <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2016.1650">parental stress</a>. Our study suggests that that one such “side effect” of benefit programs may be improving families’ overall well-being to the extent that fewer children are abused or neglected.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>A more nuanced understanding of how benefit programs might prevent child maltreatment is needed. <a href="https://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/bar/44-children-in-poverty-by-race-and-ethnicity?loc=1&loct=2#1/any/false/1729/10,11,9,12,1/323">Poverty</a> is not equally distributed among all children in the U.S., and how these programs might affect maltreatment and other health-related disparities in specific populations remains unknown.</p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic may have led to an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/opinion/coronavirus-child-abuse.html">increased risk for child maltreatment</a>. But it’s still unclear whether economic relief, such as the CARES Act and eviction protections, aided in reducing some of the perceived risk, if at all.</p>
<p>More recently, the American Rescue Plan Act provided direct economic relief to Americans and included fundamental changes to tax credits, such as the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit. These changes increased income for families and, in some cases, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2021/05/27/the-american-families-plan-too-many-tax-credits-for-children/">better allocated benefits to the lowest income Americans</a>. President Biden’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/28/fact-sheet-the-american-families-plan/">American Families Plan</a> proposes to extend those tax credit reforms and additionally invest in child care and early education. It will be critical to examine how these policy changes to benefit programs might influence poverty, child maltreatment and well-being, in general.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>We believe that ample opportunities remain to responsibly invest in public benefit programs. For example, <a href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/status-of-state-medicaid-expansion-decisions-interactive-map/">12 states have yet to expand Medicaid</a>, over 30 million Americans remain uninsured, <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/factsheet-estimates-child-care-eligibility-receipt-fiscal-year-2017">6 in 7 eligible families do not receive child care assistance</a> and <a href="https://www.aappublications.org/news/2021/09/14/childpovertyreport091421">1 in 6 U.S. children</a> still live in poverty. </p>
<p>Our findings provide optimism that public benefit programs can not only lift families out of poverty but also address child maltreatment and improve health more broadly.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 110,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170516/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Public investments in benefit programs could save tens of thousands of children from being victims of child abuse and have important later-life effects on child welfare and overall health.Henry T. Puls, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Children's Mercy Kansas City, University of Missouri-Kansas CityPaul J. Chung, Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy and Management, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1678842021-09-14T20:04:47Z2021-09-14T20:04:47ZPoverty got worse in 2020 as many low-wage workers took the brunt of the economic blows<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421174/original/file-20210914-13-vcazpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=39%2C0%2C4417%2C2929&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">About 1 in 9 Americans live below the poverty level.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/EconomyJobsReport/79fc99505312438584edfad8b2e42448/photo?Query=homeless%20pandemic%20U.S.&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=17&currentItemNo=15">AP Photo/Lynne Sladky</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Poverty in the U.S. increased in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic hammered the economy and unemployment soared. Those at the bottom of the economic ladder were hit hardest, new figures confirm, suggesting that the recession may have widened the gap between the rich and the poor. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021/income-poverty-health-insurance-coverage.html">share of Americans living below the poverty line</a> – pegged at <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-poverty-thresholds.html">US$26,695 for a family of four</a> – increased by about 1 percentage point to 11.4% from 10.5% a year earlier, the U.S. Census Bureau announced on Sept. 14, 2021. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.irp.wisc.edu/resources/how-is-poverty-measured/">This metric includes wages and other sources of income</a>, such as Social Security payments and, quite significantly in 2020, unemployment benefits. Without the massive boost in <a href="https://theconversation.com/pandemic-hardship-is-about-to-get-a-lot-worse-for-millions-of-out-of-work-americans-167165">unemployment benefits that flowed to millions of jobless Americans</a> for more than a year, the poverty rate would surely have climbed much higher.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LA4-pCYAAAAJ&hl=en">social scientist who researches poverty</a>, I’m concerned about the severe income loss some Americans experienced and signs that the nation’s extreme income inequality only got worse in 2020.</p>
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<h2>Low-income workers hit hardest</h2>
<p>Those at the bottom of the economic scale, hit much harder by the coronavirus recession, are <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.html">finding it harder to bounce back</a>, according to additional data the Census Bureau released. It’s what has been termed a <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-it-be-a-v-or-a-k-the-many-shapes-of-recessions-and-recoveries-147727">K-shaped recovery</a>.</p>
<p>Consider what happened with typical <a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.pdf">household income, which decreased</a> by 2.9% in inflation-adjusted terms to $67,521 in 2020, from $69,560 in 2019.</p>
<p>At the same time, full-time year-round workers saw their real median earnings increase 6.9% from 2019 levels – indicating that losses were borne primarily by part-time workers and people who aren’t employed throughout the whole year.</p>
<p>What’s more, the share of aggregate income – the sum of all incomes generated in the whole country – for the lowest-income households declined by 3.4%, while it increased by 0.7% among the highest-income households.</p>
<p>In another sign that low-income workers were hit the hardest in 2020, 53% of all jobs lost were held by workers earning less than $34,000 per year.</p>
<p>It’s unclear whether these inequality-exacerbating trends are continuing in 2021 or will be sustained in the years to come. But in June 2021, <a href="https://tracktherecovery.org/">employment for low-wage workers</a> had fallen by 21% from January 2020 levels, while employment for high-income workers had gained 9.6%. </p>
<h2>Some success for stimulus and relief measures</h2>
<p>The impact of the stimulus and supports is much more apparent in the <a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-275.pdf">Supplemental Poverty Measure</a> rate, which takes into account additional sources of income, such as tax credits and other government benefits.</p>
<p>Without the series of relief and stimulus packages implemented between March 2020 and the end of the year, the supplemental poverty rate would have reached 12.7%, the Census said. Instead it stood at only 9.1%, 2.6 percentile points lower than what it otherwise would have been.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167884/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elena Delavega does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The latest figures offer new evidence that a K-shaped recovery is following the coronavirus recession – which hit the lowest-paid workers the hardest.Elena Delavega, Associate Professor of Social Work, University of MemphisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1675052021-09-08T15:46:51Z2021-09-08T15:46:51ZGovernment and charitable actions likely kept millions of Americans out of food insecurity during the pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420033/original/file-20210908-27-1x1h4fa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C37%2C4200%2C2414&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Families found themselves in need of food assistance during the pandemic.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/family-carries-food-assistance-for-laid-off-walt-disney-news-photo/1230097368?adppopup=true">Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the vulnerable in the United States, the percentage of Americans in food-insecure households <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/102076/err-298.pdf?v=2150.6">held steady in 2020 at 10.5%</a>, figures released on Sept. 8, 2021, show.</p>
<p>Although unchanged from 2019, the new numbers are important for two main reasons.</p>
<p>First, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-biden-administration-can-eliminate-food-insecurity-in-the-united-states-heres-how-153029">food insecurity</a> – the state of being unable to adequately provide food for yourself or your family – has become one of the leading, if not the leading, indicator of well-being for vulnerable Americans. And with 38.3 million food-insecure Americans, the number of people affected is still high.</p>
<p>Second, the fact that the overall rate did not increase despite a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/us-economy-contracted-192-during-covid-19-pandemic-recession-2021-07-29/">serious economic downturn</a> underscores the importance of government intervention when it comes to getting food to Americans who need it.</p>
<p>That food insecurity stayed stable was due to various government actions. The Trump administration and Congress funded <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump/u-s-house-approves-2000-coronavirus-aid-checks-sought-by-trump-idUSKBN2920I0">economic relief</a> and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/personal-finance/biden-signs-third-stimulus-package/">stimulus packages</a> that supplemented the incomes of millions of Americans. </p>
<p>For some households, these measures meant their income was higher than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. As a consequence, these families had enough money to pay for a food-secure diet. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture provided the maximum Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit for all recipients on a temporary basis. This policy change represented a huge increase for many families – up to <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/a-quick-guide-to-snap-eligibility-and-benefits">roughly $620 a month for a family of four</a>.</p>
<p>And the agricultural supply chain was enormously successful in the face of a global pandemic. This success meant there were <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/food-supply-chain-resilience">few shortages of food</a> and only small increases in prices. </p>
<p>The importance of charitable food assistance also can’t be overstated. Food banks and food pantries responded nimbly and quickly to an unprecedented increase in demand and <a href="https://www.feedingamerica.org/sites/default/files/2021-09/Charitable%20Food%20Assistance%20Participation%20in%202020.pdf">provided assistance to at least 60 million Americans</a> in 2020. This was a 50% increase from 2019.</p>
<p>It isn’t all good news, though. The food insecurity gap between white- and Black-led households widened from 2019 to 2020. In <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/99282/err-275.pdf?v=7268.6">2019, the rates</a> were 7.9% of white-led households and 19.1% of Black-led households; in 2020, they were 7.1% and 21.7%. That means Black Americans are around three times more likely to be food-insecure than white people.</p>
<p>But everything would have been much, much worse both during the COVID-19 pandemic and before the pandemic were it not for the existence of SNAP. This nutrition program has been shown to alleviate food insecurity in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104403">study</a> after <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aax026">study</a>.</p>
<p>As the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated, the United States can, I believe, assure a “right to food” in the United States through government interventions, especially through expansions in benefits and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2021.102096">SNAP eligibility</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167505/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig Gundersen consults for Feeding America. He receives funding from multiple government agencies including USDA which administers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).</span></em></p>While the food insecurity rate held steady in 2020, the racial hunger gap increased.Craig Gundersen, Professor of Economics, Baylor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1660122021-08-24T12:19:52Z2021-08-24T12:19:52ZSafety net policies are helping reduce the number of Americans below the poverty line – but that’s not the whole story<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417085/original/file-20210819-17-29cusx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=298%2C224%2C5931%2C3773&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Food insecurity appears to have grown in 2020 despite the decline in poverty.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-arrive-at-west-kensington-ministry-for-a-food-pantry-news-photo/1308934225">Spencer Platt/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center zoomable">
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<p>The share of Americans living in poverty shrank to an estimated 9.2% in 2020, according to <a href="https://www.urban.org/research/publication/2020-poverty-projections">the Urban Institute</a>, a think tank that closely tracks this rate with a <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/economic-security-programs-reduce-overall-poverty-racial-and-ethnic">widely used model</a>. There were 29.3 million Americans living <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines">below the poverty line</a>, the institute’s researchers found. Another 10.3 million appear to have been kept out of poverty through government efforts to cushion the blows from <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-recession-one-of-americas-deepest-downturns-was-also-its-shortest-after-bailout-driven-bounceback-164816">massive economic upheaval triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic</a>.</p>
<p>This new estimate <a href="https://theconversation.com/americans-still-need-a-lifeline-despite-trillions-in-coronavirus-aid-155106">contradicts many</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/12/16/poverty-rising/">prior predictions</a> and is significantly lower than the <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2020/demo/p60-270.html">10.5% of the U.S. population</a> the U.S. Census Bureau said was in poverty in 2019, the most recent official data available. If confirmed when the government agency <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/tip-sheets/2021/tp21-16.html">releases official 2020 numbers in September</a>, it would signal that that the coronavirus didn’t interrupt a <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-poverty-thresholds.html">gradual decline in poverty</a>. The rate has been falling since 2010, when it stood at 15.1%. </p>
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<p>It makes sense if you find this news surprising.</p>
<p>There were <a href="https://theconversation.com/latest-jobs-report-shows-why-the-unemployment-rate-needs-fixing-154695">massive job losses when coronavirus-related lockdowns began in 2020</a>, particularly among workers without a college degree, who typically <a href="https://tracktherecovery.org/?nosplash=true">earn lower incomes</a>. And as of July 2021, the U.S. jobless rate was 5.4%, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf">well above the 3.5% rate seen in February 2020</a>. </p>
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<p>Poverty declined even though <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm">fewer people were employed</a> because the government stepped up, strengthening the safety net. It <a href="https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/government-elections/info-2020/cdc-halts-evictions-coronavirus.html">halted evictions</a>, gave workers who lost their jobs <a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-most-workers-can-collect-more-in-coronavirus-unemployment-than-they-earn-but-that-doesnt-mean-congress-should-cut-the-600-supplement-143788">larger unemployment benefits</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-steps-the-governments-taking-toward-covid-19-relief-could-help-fight-hunger-152520">bolstered the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program</a> and adopted other policies to assist people facing economic hardship.</p>
<p>Notably, the Internal Revenue Service began to distribute a series of <a href="https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-payments">COVID-19 relief and stimulus payments</a> to all but the wealthiest Americans. </p>
<h2>Not so straightforward</h2>
<p>While on the surface this appears to be good news, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=LA4-pCYAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">as a scholar who researches poverty</a>, I believe the situation is much more complex than it appears.</p>
<p>First, the way <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/testimonies/why-the-united-states-needs-an-improved-measure-of-poverty/">the government measures poverty</a> is <a href="https://theconversation.com/poverty-in-2021-looks-different-than-in-1964-but-the-us-hasnt-changed-how-it-measures-whos-poor-since-lbj-began-his-war-163626">outdated</a>.</p>
<p>It does adjust the poverty line for inflation, but <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-data-paint-an-unpleasant-picture-of-poverty-in-the-us-101069">poverty today looks very different</a> from what it was like back when statistician <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v68n3/v68n3p79.html">Mollie Orshansky</a> based the government’s initial poverty calculation in the early 1960s on 1950s data that suggested people spend one-third of their budget on food. She was figuring out not how much money people needed to thrive, but rather the point below which people would starve. Nor was she trying to devise an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/us/17orshansky.html">indicator to be used in policymaking</a>.</p>
<p>There were <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30225902">issues with this formula </a> from the beginning. For one thing, food prices vary from place to place, causing regional differences in how much it costs to put food on the table. For another, families differ in terms of what they need to eat.</p>
<p>Many <a href="https://www.childtrends.org/indicators/children-in-poverty#_edn2">researchers have found</a> that any family of four living on less than about <a href="https://doi.org/10.2202/1944-2858.1088">twice the poverty threshold, which stood at $25,750 in 2019</a>, would have trouble making ends meet. The Census Bureau itself calculates a <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2020/demo/p60-272.html">Supplemental Poverty Measure</a>, which finds somewhat more people living in poverty than through its original method. The Department of Health and Human Services sets its own <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines">federal poverty guidelines</a>, which are about the same as the official poverty thresholds. <a href="https://www.thebalance.com/federal-poverty-level-definition-guidelines-chart-3305843">Eligibility for SNAP and other benefits for low-income people</a> is often pegged well above this minimum.</p>
<h2>Food insecurity grew</h2>
<p>Another reason to not get too excited about a lower 2020 poverty rate is that the share of Americans experiencing <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-food-insecurity-152746">food insecurity</a>, meaning that they couldn’t get enough of the food needed for a balanced diet, rose to an estimated <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-pandemic-recession-has-pushed-a-further-9-8-million-americans-into-food-insecurity-157016">13.9% in 2020 from 10.9% in 2019</a>.</p>
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<p>This increase could be unrelated to income. Many people had new <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242476">transportation challenges</a>, and numerous families had a hard time replacing the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/08/908442609/children-are-going-hungry-why-schools-are-struggling-to-feed-students">food their children would ordinarily consume at school</a>, despite <a href="https://frac.org/pebtfaq">government efforts to avoid that problem</a>.</p>
<p>It could also indicate that many people scrimped on food to meet other basic needs.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>That’s because <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/food/americans-turning-to-food-banks-during-the-pandemic/">more low-income Americans</a> get assistance through a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-food-banks-help-americans-who-have-trouble-getting-enough-to-eat-148150">food bank</a> or food pantry as opposed to programs that help them <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/blog/rental-assistance-cuts-homelessness-and-poverty-but-doesnt-reach-most-who-need-it">pay their rent</a> or keep up with their <a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-auto-loans-business-ap-top-news-us-news-33ea7b9fe25c4a648b53575d7f17c5af">car loans</a>. </p>
<p>This discrepancy is another reason I believe the government needs to improve how it measures poverty. Something doesn’t add up when there are more Americans who cannot get enough of the food they need than there are living below the poverty line.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166012/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elena Delavega does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Early estimates US poverty rate estimates indicate that policies intended to soften the blow of economic upheaval made a big difference.Elena Delavega, Associate Professor of Social Work, University of MemphisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1657062021-08-06T12:40:09Z2021-08-06T12:40:09ZForget the American Dream – millions of working Americans still can’t afford food and rent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414911/original/file-20210805-15-snb3a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=176%2C112%2C4523%2C3015&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Retail employees such as cashiers are among the least-paid U.S. workers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Election2020MinimumWageFlorida/e0532f837478432da9ccec7a178eb98d/photo?Query=cashier&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=642&currentItemNo=13">AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Biden administration is likely celebrating a <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf">better-than-expected jobs report</a>, which showed surging employment and wages. However, for millions of working Americans, being employed doesn’t guarantee a living income.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://sgpp.arizona.edu/people/jeff-kucik">scholars interested</a> in the <a href="https://knowlton.osu.edu/people/leonard.471">well-being of workers</a>, we believe that the economy runs better when people aren’t forced to choose between paying rent, buying food or getting medicine. Yet too many are compelled to do just that.</p>
<p>Determining just how many workers struggle to make ends meet is a complicated task. A worker’s minimum survival budget can vary considerably based on where the person lives and how many people are in the family. </p>
<p>Take Rochester, New York. It has a cost of living that’s closest to the national average across 509 U.S. metropolitan areas, according to the <a href="https://advisorsmith.com/data/coli">City Cost of Living Index</a> compiled by the research firm AdvisorSmith. </p>
<p><a href="https://livingwage.mit.edu">MIT’s living wage calculator</a> shows that a single adult living in Rochester <a href="https://livingwage.mit.edu/metros/40380">needs at least US$30,000</a> a year to cover the cost of housing, food, transportation and other basic needs. </p>
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<p>But in San Francisco, which AdvisorSmith data indicate is the U.S. city with the highest cost of living, affording just the basics <a href="https://livingwage.mit.edu/metros/41860">costs $47,587</a>, mainly due to significantly higher taxes and <a href="https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=median%20rent&y=2019&tid=ACSDT1Y2019.B25031">rents</a>. </p>
<p>The city with the <a href="https://livingwage.mit.edu/metros/13220">lowest cost of living is Beckley, West Virginia</a>. Even there, a childless worker still needs to earn about $28,200 to make essential ends meet. Again, <a href="https://advisorsmith.com/data/coli/">the average American city</a> has a cost of living of around $30,000 a year for a single person.</p>
<p>Of course, costs add up quickly for households with more than one person. Two adults in Rochester need over $48,000 a year, while a single parent with one child needs more than $63,000. In San Francisco, a single parent would need to earn $101,000 a year just to scrape by. </p>
<p>So that’s what it takes to survive in today’s America. About $30,000 a year for a single person without dependents in the average city – a little less in some cities, and much, much more for families and anyone who lives in a major city like San Francisco or New York. </p>
<p>But we estimate that <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_stru.htm#41-0000">at least 27 million U.S. workers</a> don’t earn enough to hit that very low threshold of $30,000, based on the latest occupation wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a government agency, from May 2020. We believe this is a conservative estimate and that the number of people with jobs who earn less than what’s necessary to afford the necessities of life is likely much higher. </p>
<p>Low-income occupations encompass a wide range of jobs, from bus drivers to cleaners to administrative assistants. However, the majority of those 27 million workers are concentrated in two industries: <a href="https://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag44-45.htm">retail trade</a> and <a href="https://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag70.htm">leisure and hospitality</a>. These two industries are among America’s <a href="https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/employment-by-major-industry-sector.htm">largest employers</a> and pay the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrci.htm">lowest average wages</a>. </p>
<p>For example, the median salary for cashiers was $28,850 in early 2020, with 2.5 million of the nation’s 5 million cashiers earning less than that. Or take retail sales. There, 75% of workers – about 1.8 million – were earning less than $27,080 a year.</p>
<p>It’s the same story for leisure and hospitality, the industry that took the hardest hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, <a href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CEU7072000006?amp%253bdata_tool=XGtable&output_view=data&include_graphs=true">hemorrhaging 6 million jobs</a> in April 2020 as much of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/business/economy/coronavirus-us-economy-shutdown.html">U.S. economy shut down</a>. At the time, close to a million waiters and waitresses were earning less than the median income of $23,740. </p>
<p>Of course, millions of those jobs have returned, and wages have been surging this year – <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-30/inflation-eats-at-surging-u-s-wages-with-biden-agenda-at-stake">though only slightly more than inflation</a>. But that doesn’t change the basic math that roughly 1 in 6 workers is making less than what’s necessary for an adult with no kids to survive. </p>
<p>That’s why it’s hardly surprising that 40% of U.S. households reported in 2018 that <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/2017-report-economic-well-being-us-households-201805.pdf">they couldn’t afford an emergency $400 expense</a>. </p>
<p>To us, these figures should cause policymakers to redefine who counts among the “working poor.” A <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/working-poor/2019/home.htm">2021 Bureau of Labor Statistics report</a> estimated that in 2019 about 6.3 million workers earned less than the poverty rate.</p>
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<p>But this situation drastically understates the scope of the working poor because the <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines/prior-hhs-poverty-guidelines-federal-register-references/2021-poverty-guidelines">federal poverty line</a> is unrealistically low – only $12,880 for an individual. The official poverty line <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fpl.asp">was created to determine eligibility</a> for Medicaid and other government benefits that support low-income people, not to indicate how much a person needs to actually get by.</p>
<p>Writer James Truslow Adams <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/james-truslow-adams-dreaming-american-dream/">coined the phrase “The American Dream”</a> in 1931 to describe a society in which he hoped anyone could attain the “fullest stature of which they are innately capable.” That depended on having a good job that paid a living wage. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, for many millions of hard-working Americans, the “better and richer and fuller” life <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Epic-of-America/Adams/p/book/9781412847438">Adams wrote about</a> remains just a dream. </p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165706/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Employment and wages soared in the latest labor report, but that’s small comfort for the many workers with a job that doesn’t pay a living wage.Jeffrey Kucik, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of ArizonaDon Leonard, Assistant Professor of Practice in City and Regional Planning, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1619572021-07-20T18:45:06Z2021-07-20T18:45:06ZFree school meals for all children can improve kids’ health<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411933/original/file-20210719-19-1pzcy0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5366%2C3572&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many children, especially from low-income communities or communities of color, eat up to half their daily calories in school. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/cafeteria-worker-serving-healthy-food-to-children-royalty-free-image/498579063?adppopup=true">SDI Productions/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recognizing that millions of U.S. children are at <a href="https://theconversation.com/18-million-us-children-are-at-risk-of-hunger-how-is-the-problem-being-addressed-and-what-more-can-be-done-151821">risk of hunger</a>, <a href="https://www.foodservicedirector.com/operations/maine-california-embrace-universal-free-school-meals">Maine and California</a> have approved funding to offer free school meals to all students within their state. Meanwhile, a <a href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Universal-School-Meals-Program-Act-of-2021.pdf">bill proposed in Congress</a> aims to make free school meals a permanent fixture in all states.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Universal-School-Meals-Act-Summary.4.28.21.pdf">Universal School Meals Program Act</a> would provide free healthy meals and snacks to all children in public and nonprofit private schools regardless of income. </p>
<p>Currently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/child-nutrition-response-84">has allowed</a> school districts to provide meals free of charge to families during the pandemic. Previously set to expire in September, the policy has been extended <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2021/04/20/usda-issues-pandemic-flexibilities-schools-and-day-care-facilities">through the 2021-2022 school year</a>. This marks the first time in the <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp/program-history">75-year history</a> of the National School Lunch Program that all U.S. public school children are getting equal access to school meals, with no questions asked.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.eatright.org/food/resources/learn-more-about-rdns/qualifications-of-a-registered-dietitian-nutritionist">registered dietitian nutritionist</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=2ujk8c8AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">researcher</a> who specializes in child <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-food-insecurity-152746#:%7E:text=Food%20insecurity%20is%20fundamentally%20an,obstacles%20like%20poverty%20and%20discrimination.&text=Food%20insecurity%20can%20be%20exacerbated,of%20healthy%20and%20affordable%20food.">food insecurity</a>, I frequently see how <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11071574">access and availability</a> to nutritious foods can shape kids’ health. </p>
<p>When children return to schools in the fall, the ongoing policy waivers provide an opportunity to examine how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2020.03.006">universal free school meals</a> impact nutrition in school meal programs and health inequities among children.</p>
<h2>Better health</h2>
<p>Good nutrition plays a crucial role in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22175">strong academic outcomes</a>. School meals have been shown to reduce childhood <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2017/august/usda-s-national-school-lunch-program-reduces-food-insecurity">food insecurity</a> and childhood <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2014.2048">overweight and obesity</a> while improving <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2016.04.010">overall diet quality</a>. </p>
<p>School meals are often more nutritious than meals eaten <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.5262">elsewhere</a> or even <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S136898001900017X">home-packed lunches</a>. Studies have shown that access to school meals can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxy267">improve attendance</a>, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/health_and_academics/pdf/factsheetDietaryBehaviors.pdf">academic performance</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.3386/w24986">behavior</a>.</p>
<h2>Less stigma</h2>
<p>Many children, especially those from low-income and minority families, eat up to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2016.11.016">half their daily calories</a> at school. For these families, the cost of school meals, usually between <a href="https://schoolnutrition.org/aboutschoolmeals/schoolmealtrendsstats/">US$2.48 and $2.74</a> depending on grade level, can add up quickly over a week, month or school year.</p>
<p>Children with <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/unpaid-meal-charges">outstanding meal debts</a> could be <a href="https://www.eater.com/2019/5/22/18634237/lunch-shaming-students-meal-debt-american-schools">shamed</a>, refused a meal or provided a lower-cost alternative meal – such as a cheese sandwich, fruit and milk rather than the standard meal served to other students. </p>
<h2>Needed relief</h2>
<p>School meal programs are run like a business and depend heavily on federal <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/rates-reimbursement">reimbursements</a> from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. When families can’t or don’t pay for meals served, schools may need to use their own funds to cover the losses. The Department of Agriculture <a href="https://frac.org/wp-content/uploads/frac-unpaid-meal-fees-policy-guide.pdf">prohibits using federal funds</a> to pay off unpaid meal debt. The Universal School Meals Program Act would <a href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Universal-School-Meals-Act-Summary.4.28.21.pdf">eliminate around $10.9 million of existing</a> unpaid school meal debt reported by <a href="https://schoolnutrition.org/uploadedFiles/6_News_Publications_and_Research/8_SNA_Research/2019-school-nutrition-trends-summary.pdf">75% of U.S. school districts</a>. </p>
<p>In addition to school meal debt, during the first full year of the pandemic, schools served <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/data/february-2021-keydata-report">fewer meals</a>, resulting in further losses in revenue. The meals served <a href="https://schoolnutrition.org/uploadedFiles/6_News_Publications_and_Research/8_SNA_Research/Impact-of-Covid-19-on-School-Nutrition-Programs-Back-to-School-2020.pdf">were more costly</a> due to packaging and personal protective equipment for staff. As a result, more than <a href="https://schoolnutrition.org/aboutschoolmeals/schoolmealtrendsstats/">50% of school meal programs</a> reported a financial loss in 2019-2020. An even greater number of programs report expecting a loss for the <a href="https://schoolnutrition.org/aboutschoolmeals/schoolmealtrendsstats/">2020-2021 school year</a>. </p>
<h2>Return on investment</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13020670">national study</a> found that schools participating in universal free meal programs reduced their per-meal costs while maintaining nutritional quality of meals served. School meals can <a href="https://agriculture.vermont.gov/sites/agriculture/files/documents/Farm_to_School_Institution/Economic%20Contribution%20of%20Farm%20to%20School%20in%20Vermont%20.pdf">stimulate local economies</a> because they can <a href="http://www.farmtoschool.org/Resources/EconomicImpactReport.pdf">drive purchases from local farmers</a> and ranchers and <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520300033/the-labor-of-lunch">create jobs</a> in school nutrition, food production, sales and distribution. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>For school districts, switching to a universal model of meals for all children – regardless of income – is likely to reduce <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/child-nutrition-reporting-burden-analysis-study">administrative burdens</a>. Schools would no longer have to waste time on applications and meeting reporting requirements like they have to do under the current reimbursement model. They could focus on healthy meals and nutrition education instead. </p>
<p>I believe the return on investment from universal school lunches would benefit our country’s economic recovery from the pandemic as well as the health and well-being of our country’s children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161957/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew J. Landry receives funding support from the National Institutes of Health. He is affiliated with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics where he serves as a volunteer member of the Legislative and Public Policy Committee. He is also a member of the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior where he serves as an appointed member of the Advisory Committee on Public Policy. These organizations had no role in this article and the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author.</span></em></p>Expanding free lunch programs could also reduce stigma for students, lower administrative burdens for schools and create jobs for communities.Matthew J. Landry, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Stanford UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1636262021-07-12T12:29:11Z2021-07-12T12:29:11ZPoverty in 2021 looks different than in 1964 – but the US hasn’t changed how it measures who’s poor since LBJ began his war<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410488/original/file-20210708-27-1v5n3jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=317%2C24%2C5115%2C4194&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Poverty in America has changed since the 1960s.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/news-photo/700185625?adppopup=true">Morton Broffman/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson <a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/lbj1964stateoftheunion.htm">famously declared war on poverty</a>. </p>
<p>“The richest nation on Earth can afford to win it,” he told Congress in his first State of the Union address. “We cannot afford to lose it.” </p>
<p>Yet as the administration was to learn on both the domestic and foreign battlefields, a country marching off to war must have a credible estimate of the enemy’s size and strength. Surprisingly, up until this point, the U.S. had no official measure of poverty and therefore no statistics on its scope, shape or changing nature. The U.S. needed to come up with a way of measuring how many people in America were poor.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://brownschool.wustl.edu/Faculty-and-Research/Pages/Mark-Rank.aspx">I discuss</a> in my recently published book “<a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/confronting-poverty/book262548">Confronting Poverty</a>,” the approach that the government came up with in the 1960s is still – <a href="https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/july-2012/understanding-poverty-measures-and-the-call-to-update-them">despite its many shortcomings</a> – the government’s official measure of poverty and used to determine eligibility for hundreds of billions of dollars in federal aid. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman carries a box of food to a car waiting at a food bank in Los Angeles" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410489/original/file-20210708-23-1f7tex8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410489/original/file-20210708-23-1f7tex8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410489/original/file-20210708-23-1f7tex8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410489/original/file-20210708-23-1f7tex8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410489/original/file-20210708-23-1f7tex8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410489/original/file-20210708-23-1f7tex8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410489/original/file-20210708-23-1f7tex8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The need for food aid exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/license/1297847903">Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Counting the poor</h2>
<p>Broadly speaking, poverty means not having the money to purchase the basic necessities to maintain a minimally adequate life, such as food, shelter and clothing.</p>
<p>The government came up with <a href="https://www.census.gov/topics/income-poverty/poverty.html">its official method for counting poor people</a> in the mid-1960s. </p>
<p>First, it asks, what does it cost to purchase a minimally adequate diet during the year for a particularly sized family? That number is then multiplied by three, and you have arrived at the poverty line. That’s it. </p>
<p>If a family’s income falls above the line it is not considered in poverty, while those below the line are counted as poor. </p>
<p>What about all the other basic necessities, such as housing, clothing and health care? That’s where the multiplier of three comes in. When the poverty thresholds were devised, <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/history/fisheronpoverty.htm">research indicated</a> that the typical family spent approximately one-third of its income on food and the remaining two-thirds on all other expenses.</p>
<p>Therefore, the logic was that if a minimally adequate diet could be purchased for a particular dollar amount, multiplying that figure by three would give the amount of income needed to purchase the basic necessities for a minimally adequate life. </p>
<p>Back in 1963, that <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-poverty-people.html">translated into a poverty line</a> of US$3,128 for a family of four. In 2019, the same family’s poverty line <a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2020/demo/p60-270.pdf">stood at $26,172</a>. For an interesting contrast, <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/162587/americans-say-family-four-needs-nearly-60k.aspx">that’s less than half what the average American polled</a> in 2013 said was the “smallest amount of money” a family of four needed to get by, or $58,000.</p>
<p>The federal government adjusts the poverty line annually to reflect increases in the cost of living. The cutoff itself varies by the number of people in the household, while a household’s annual income is based upon the earnings of everyone currently residing within it. </p>
<p>Using this measure, <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2020/demo/p60-270.html">10.5% of the U.S. population</a> was in poverty in 2019, the most recent data available.</p>
<p>Keep in mind, though, these thresholds represent impoverishment at its most opulent level. Among those living below the poverty line, <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2020/demo/income-poverty/p60-270.html">45% live in “deep” poverty</a>, which means they live on less than half of the official poverty line.</p>
<p>The government uses the official poverty line as the base to determine who’s eligible for a range of social programs, from Medicaid to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/scaling-back-snap-for-self-reliance-clashes-with-the-original-goals-of-food-stamps-128839">Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program</a>. For example, to qualify for SNAP, a household <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/a-quick-guide-to-snap-eligibility-and-benefits">must be below 130% of the poverty line</a> for its size. </p>
<p><iframe id="bQ8O1" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/bQ8O1/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Other measures of poverty</h2>
<p><a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/beyond_the_poverty_line">Most analysts</a>, however, consider the official poverty line to be an extremely conservative measure of economic hardship.</p>
<p>A major reason for this is that families today have to spend much more on things other than food than they did in the 1960s. For example, <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIHOSNS">housing costs have surged over 800%</a> since then. </p>
<p>For that reason, some critics say the multiplier of three <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/history/fisheronpoverty.html">should be raised to four</a> or <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/testimonies/why-the-united-states-needs-an-improved-measure-of-poverty/">even higher</a>. Taking that step would result in a much larger percentage of the population being seen as in poverty, making them eligible for anti-poverty benefits. </p>
<p>In response, in 2011 the census bureau <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2020/demo/p60-272.html">developed an alternative measure of poverty</a>, called the Supplemental Poverty Measure. This method takes into account a number of factors that the official poverty measure does not, such as differences in cost of living across the country. The result pushes the poverty rate up just a tad, to <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2020/demo/p60-272.html">11.7% for 2019</a>. This measure is mostly used today by academics and researchers.</p>
<p>Another method, <a href="https://tcf.org/content/report/american-poverty-measured-relative-prevailing-standards-time/">common in many high-income countries</a>, ignores the cost of living calculations entirely.</p>
<p>The European Union, for example, defines poverty as the percentage of the population that earns below one half of whatever the median income is. For example, in the U.S., the <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2020/demo/p60-270.html">median income in 2019 was $68,703</a>, which means anyone earning less than $34,351 would be deemed poor. By that measure, the U.S. <a href="https://data.oecd.org/inequality/poverty-rate.htm#indicator-chart">would have a poverty rate of 17.8%</a>. </p>
<p>In fact, back in 1959, the poverty line for a family of four <a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2020/demo/p60-270.pdf">was about half of median income in the U.S.</a> Today, it’s about a quarter, which means the federal government’s definition of who is poor hasn’t kept up with overall rising standards of living. </p>
<p>One other approach is based on the idea that poverty is more than just a lack of income and should reflect economic insecurity more broadly, such as not having unemployment or health insurance. The census recently calculated what poverty might look from this perspective and concluded <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/working-papers/2021/demo/SEHSD-WP2021-03.html">38% of Americans experienced</a> one or more aspects of deprivation in 2019. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="President Lyndon B. Johnson delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House of Representatives as lawmakers and other look on." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410478/original/file-20210708-19-1bv9f5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=143%2C175%2C2851%2C1845&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410478/original/file-20210708-19-1bv9f5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410478/original/file-20210708-19-1bv9f5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410478/original/file-20210708-19-1bv9f5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410478/original/file-20210708-19-1bv9f5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410478/original/file-20210708-19-1bv9f5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410478/original/file-20210708-19-1bv9f5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lyndon B. Johnson declared a ‘war on poverty’ in 1964.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/LBJStateOfTheUnion/dbb222a20a4d4f6cb4d9fcf1842bcd4f/photo?Query=johnson%20war%20on%20poverty&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=19&currentItemNo=7">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The only way to win the war</h2>
<p>Why does it matter how a society measures poverty? </p>
<p>It matters because in order to address a problem, you must have a clear understanding of its scope. By using an extremely conservative measurement such as the federal poverty line, the U.S. minimizes the extent and depth of poverty in the country.</p>
<p>An inaccurate poverty line inevitably also limits the number of impoverished people who qualify for much-needed federal and state assistance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/covid-poverty-america/">millions of people would have fallen into poverty</a> were it not for less conditional coronavirus aid from the federal government, such as the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-payments">three rounds of economic impact checks</a> and <a href="https://www.dol.gov/coronavirus/unemployment-insurance">supplemental federal employment insurance</a>. </p>
<p>Many Americans in the past have been rudely surprised at just how inadequate America’s safety net is, at least in part because it’s based on outdated federal poverty thresholds. Broadening the definition of poverty would ensure it’s more likely to be there to support people in a crisis. </p>
<p>Ultimately, poverty will touch the majority of Americans at some point in their lives. My own research shows that roughly 6 in 10 Americans will spend <a href="https://confrontingpoverty.org/poverty-facts-and-myths/most-americans-will-experience-poverty/">at least one of their adult years below the official poverty line</a>. </p>
<p>But if the U.S. ever hopes to finally win the war LBJ began in 1964, the poor need to be seen in order for the government to lift them out of poverty. </p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163626/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Robert Rank does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Newer measures of poverty may do a better job of counting America’s poor, which is necessary to helping them.Mark Robert Rank, Professor of Social Welfare, Washington University in St. LouisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1567312021-04-15T12:40:57Z2021-04-15T12:40:57ZWhat former foster children went through when the COVID-19 pandemic closed college campuses<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394590/original/file-20210412-19-uawo90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=210%2C154%2C1609%2C1087&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some college students have no home to return to.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/student-at-massachusetts-bay-community-college-who-now-news-photo/1092060620">Lane Turner/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>In the first two months of the pandemic, more than half of former foster children lost their jobs and nearly 40% experienced precarious living situations or homelessless, according to a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105836">survey of 127 former foster children</a> between the ages of 18 and 26 that we conducted in May and June of 2020.</p>
<p>They were among the estimated <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/research-data-technology/statistics-research/afcars">20,000 people in foster care</a> who are “<a href="https://www.findlaw.com/family/foster-care/aging-out-of-foster-care.html">emancipated</a>” each year when they age out of the system, beginning as young as 18. These young adults typically <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/faq/foster-care7">lose most of the support the government provides foster children</a> – such as caseworker support and access to health care and housing. </p>
<p>Most of the people we surveyed were college students. Like most former foster youth going to college in the spring of 2020, they <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2021/01/25/colleges-should-do-much-more-support-students-who-have-been-foster-care-opinion">did not have a stable living situation</a> or family to go home to when campuses across the country shut down. Many described how the resilience they developed in foster care made it easier to withstand these new challenges.</p>
<p>“Being in foster care taught me how to survive, which makes living through a pandemic a little easier,” one told us.</p>
<p>Others shared concerns that underscored how challenges facing former foster children go far beyond what’s going on during the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p>“I wish that there was more support for us older foster children who want to do more with our lives, who truly want to break the stigma around being in foster care,” one participant told us. “At the same time, we are never truly given the [help] we need to make all of that possible.” </p>
<p>We also heard concerns about children who remain in the problem-prone <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-in-foster-care-face-deeper-jeopardy-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-141263">foster care system</a>: “I can’t stop thinking/worrying about the kids that are stuck in foster homes they do not like/are unfit,” one survey participant wrote.</p>
<p>Others shared concerns about children and teens still in foster care becoming less likely to be reunited with their relatives, and more likely to lose contact with them, due to travel restrictions and social distancing. </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Even when the economy is strong and there’s no global calamity, these young adults experience financial hardships. They <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1521025118791776">need to support themselves</a> earlier than their peers, which can result in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.08.016">housing and food insecurity</a> and interfere with <a href="https://www.casey.org/supporting-success/">their schooling</a>. Only <a href="https://youthtoday.org/2019/03/as-more-colleges-states-aid-youth-in-foster-care-data-on-results-is-needed-researchers-say/">4% of former foster children graduate from college</a>, compared with more than one-third of their peers. </p>
<p>And when the pandemic struck, it made things a lot worse for former foster children. </p>
<p>Millions of students will return to <a href="https://www.bestcolleges.com/blog/college-campuses-covid-19-guidelines-fall/">college campuses in the fall of 2021</a> for the first time in <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/02/03/962820314/colleges-add-more-in-person-classes-for-spring-amid-high-risk-of-coronavirus-spr">about 18 months</a>. Among them will be many former foster children, including some who are not ready to resume in-person instruction after a tumultuous time in their lives. Although often resilient, we believe these young people will require support from their colleges and universities. </p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>We are digging deeper into this data to learn more about the experiences of the college students who completed this survey to see what kinds of aid and support were the most helpful for young people left in the lurch during lockdowns.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156731/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Even when the economy is strong, these young adults face economic hardship.Saralyn Ruff, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of San FranciscoDeanna Linville, Associate Professor & Research Scientist of Mental Health, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1570162021-03-19T11:30:07Z2021-03-19T11:30:07ZThe pandemic recession has pushed a further 9.8 million Americans into food insecurity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390225/original/file-20210317-17-5n1sba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5000%2C3555&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lines outside food distribution centers have become a common scene.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-wait-in-a-line-outside-of-padonia-international-news-photo/1229967305?adppopup=true">Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390439/original/file-20210318-13-1oxi7zr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390439/original/file-20210318-13-1oxi7zr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390439/original/file-20210318-13-1oxi7zr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390439/original/file-20210318-13-1oxi7zr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390439/original/file-20210318-13-1oxi7zr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390439/original/file-20210318-13-1oxi7zr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390439/original/file-20210318-13-1oxi7zr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed hardship on millions of vulnerable Americans through <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R46554.pdf">unemployment and reduced work hours</a>. And this has increased <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/aepp/ppx058">food insecurity </a> across the nation.</p>
<p>There is no official figure yet for how many more families are struggling to provide regular meals around the table – the <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/99282/err-275.pdf?v=7268.6">U.S. Department of Agriculture’s next annual report</a> on food insecurity, defined as a lack of access to sufficient food due to limited financial resources, won’t be out until the fall.</p>
<p>But for me as an <a href="https://ace.illinois.edu/directory/cggunder">academic who has long tracked food insecurity trends</a>, working out the increase in the number of people affected and projecting what will happen next is important. By understanding this, experts can work out whether what is occurring during the pandemic is likely to follow – or breaks with – previous patterns during and after economic recessions. </p>
<p>To project what has happened to food insecurity under the pandemic, colleagues at Feeding America, the nationwide network of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-food-banks-help-americans-who-have-trouble-getting-enough-to-eat-148150">food banks</a>, and I used a model underlying the nonprofit’s <a href="https://map.feedingamerica.org/">Map the Meal Gap</a> study. In particular, it looks at how changes in poverty and unemployment at a local level influenced food insecurity.</p>
<p>Our latest projection shows that the overall food insecurity rates rose sharply, from 10.9% in 2019 to 13.9% in 2020. In terms of people, that means a rise from 35.2 million food insecure Americans in 2019 to 45 million in 2020.</p>
<p>An additional 4.3 million children became food insecure over the same period, rising to 15 million in total. That represents an increase in the food insecurity rate for children from 14.6% to 19.9%, or a change from 1 in 7 kids to 1 in 5.</p>
<p><iframe id="gbVxe" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/gbVxe/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Based on our projections, we believe that U.S. food insecurity will decline slightly in 2021 to 12.9% for the entire population, and 17.9% for children. The reasons for this expected decrease include the impact of relief checks for many Americans – which has restrained the <a href="http://povertymeasurement.org/covid-19-poverty-dashboard/">growth of poverty</a> – and the continued decline in the unemployment rate after initial sharp increases in March and April 2020.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-biden-administration-can-eliminate-food-insecurity-in-the-united-states-heres-how-153029">Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program </a>, known widely as SNAP, continues to provide a lifeline for many Americans. Alongside these government programs, food banks across the country have rapidly increased their distribution of food to vulnerable households.</p>
<p>Finally, the <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/food-supply-chain-resilience">agricultural supply chain</a> in the U.S. has shown itself to be robust in the face of the pandemic.</p>
<p>To put the pandemic’s effect on food insecurity into perspective, the increases we are projecting for 2020 are less than what was seen at the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10875549.2018.1460738">outset of the Great Recession</a> sparked by 2007’s financial crisis. Food insecurity rose from 12.2% (36.2 million people) before the Great Recession to 16.4% (49.1 million) at its peak.</p>
<p>Moreover, whereas it took several years after the Great Recession for food insecurity rates to drop significantly, we are projecting a decline in 2021.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>Racial hunger gap</h2>
<p>Even with this predicted decline in food insecurity in 2021, there are some troubling trends when we break things down by race, in particular for Black communities. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, the food insecurity rate for Black people was 19.3% – <a href="https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/african-american">more than twice as high as it was for white Americans</a> (9.6%). This projected gap narrowed somewhat in 2020. But in 2021, Black food insecurity rates are projected to fall by only 0.3 percentage points compared to a drop of 1.2 percentage points for white people.</p>
<p>This highlights a troubling trend. Namely, that food insecurity was a huge issue for the U.S. before COVID-19; it was a huge issue during the pandemic; and it will continue to be so after. And, in particular, those who are most at risk of food insecurity will continue to be especially vulnerable. </p>
<p><em>Monica Hake, Adam Dewey and Emily Engelhard from Feeding America contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157016/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig Gundersen consults for Feeding America and Urban Institute and has received external grants from, among other organizations, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR).</span></em></p>A team of experts are projecting that after a steep increase in 2020, food insecurity rates will dip in 2021. But behind this is a racial gap – rates for Black Americans will remain stubbornly high.Craig Gundersen, Professor of Economics, Baylor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1517762020-12-16T19:04:59Z2020-12-16T19:04:59ZFact check US: Would a $15 minimum wage really help workers?<p>Since 2009, the United States federal minimum wage has remained at $7.25 per hour. President-elect Joe Biden plans to not only increase it to $15, but also to extend it to workers who are not covered by the current legislation, such as farm and domestic workers, and index it to the median wage. While this would be done incrementally over the next five years, the proposed change is bold and has caused a stir.</p>
<p>The effects of an increase in minimum wage have long been hotly debated. In the 1990s, economists David Card and Alan Krueger showed that such an increase in the New Jersey fast-food industry <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w4509/w4509.pdf">did not in fact reduce employment</a>. Rather than firing staff, restaurants partially compensated for increased payroll costs by raising their prices.</p>
<p>In 2012, the movement <a href="https://fightfor15.org/about-us/">Fight for $15</a> was born out of the fast-food industry where minimum wage is very common. Wage increase is an efficient way to help ward off financial insecurity. However, it can also have a detrimental effect on employment if the increase is too high, in terms of the extra cost for businesses. What’s more, the economic situation from state to state varies greatly, meaning that setting a $15 per hour minimum would not have the same consequences everywhere.</p>
<h2>A measure that dates back to times of financial crisis</h2>
<p>After the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was inaugurated in 1933, introduced laws to protect workers rights and provide a safety net for low-income earners. The basic protections, such as minimum wage and paid overtime, meant that workers received a more equitable part of the added value generated by their work. More recently, in 2014, Barack Obama tried to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/sep/05/barack-obama-us-minimum-wage-republicans-tom-perez">increase the minimum wage</a> to combat the disastrous economic fallout of the subprime mortgage crisis. However, this measure was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-senate-minimumwage-idUSBREA3T0PT20140430">blocked by the Republican-led Congress</a>.</p>
<p>Donald Trump has <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/10/22/21529733/donald-trump-minimum-wage-debate">flip-flopped</a> several times on this subject. Initially, he was in favor of increasing the federal minimum to $10 per hour. Then, he left the decision to the states, before raging against it during the last presidential <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/10/23/debate-minimum-wage-increase/">debate</a>. In 2019, the Democratic House of Representatives <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/18/us/politics/minimum-wage.html">voted to increase the federal minimum wage</a> to $15 per hour by 2025. But that also came to nothing, as it was rejected by the Republican-controlled Senate.</p>
<p>However, the wind seems to have changed. Florida, which was won by Trump, also voted on an amendment during the presidential elections to increase minimum wage to $15. <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Florida_Amendment_2,_%2415_Minimum_Wage_Initiative_(2020)">60% of voters were in favor</a>.</p>
<h2>Same minimum wage, different purchasing power</h2>
<p>In 1938, the hourly minimum was set as $0.25, and <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/04/5-facts-about-the-minimum-wage/">increased more or less regularly</a> over the next several decades, eventually reaching $7.25 in 2009. That is where it has stayed ever since. However, while the wage itself has stayed the same, those dollars correspond to an ever- <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=ex3l">decreasing</a> purchasing power due to inflation.</p>
<p>Nowadays, what the minimum wage can buy is even less than at the end of the 1990s. It was actually in the 1960s that minimum wage was worth the most, with a peak in 1968 when it was worth nearly <a href="https://www.epi.org/blog/raising-the-minimum-wage-to-15-by-2025-will-restore-bargaining-power-to-workers-during-the-recovery-from-the-pandemic/">$10 in today’s money</a>. This two-fold observation alone justifies Biden’s plan to increase minimum wage. However, the actual impact that such an increase will have remains to be seen, as each state will be affected differently.</p>
<h2>Few workers are being paid the minimum wage</h2>
<p>In 2019, the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2019/home.htm">Bureau of Labor Statistics</a> (BLS) estimated that 392,000 workers receive minimum wage – that is, less than 0.5% of workers paid hourly, and 0.28% of all workers (a percentage that has been regularly decreasing since 2010). That being said, it should be noted that 1.2 million workers are still paid below minimum wage, accounting for 1.47% of workers paid hourly (0.85% of all workers). However, this number does include workers who receive commission and tips and may receive a total salary that is much higher overall. The rest represents workers who are not covered by current legislation (such as farmworkers). In comparison, <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/conjoncture/la-part-des-salaries-remuneres-au-smic-au-plus-haut-depuis-11-ans-20191213">13.4% of French workers</a> receive minimum wage, which was last increased in 2019.</p>
<p>In reality, <a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/state#wy">a significantly higher minimum wage than the federal minimum applies</a> in many parts of the United States, due to more advantageous local legislation. As it happens, states, counties and cities can set a higher minimum wage than the federal rate. The general rule is that the highest minimum applies in the geographic area in question. This still means that when no local legislation is more favorable, employers can apply the federal minimum wage.</p>
<p>In California, for instance, minimum wage was increased to $12 per hour on 1 January 2020. The state has been steadily increasing the minimum since 2017, with a <a href="https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_minimumwage.htm">plan</a> to reach $15 per hour on 1 January 2023. In San Francisco, the local government voted to <a href="https://sfgov.org/olse/minimum-wage-ordinance-mwo">increase the minimum wage</a> in 2014, a change that would affect all the city’s workers. In 2018, the target of $15 per hour was reached; since then, the minimum has increased in line with the consumer price index. On January 1, 2020, it was $16.07 per hour.</p>
<p>Right now, some 30 of the 50 states already enforce a higher minimum wage than the federal minimum, and <a href="https://joinhomebase.com/blog/state-minimum-wage-2021/">10 states</a>, three of which are led by Republicans, plan to increase it over the coming years, to $15.</p>
<h2>What impact would $15 per hour have on a federal level?</h2>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/minimum-wage-15-by-2025/">Economic Policy Institute</a>, raising the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025 would increase the salary of 20% of wage-earning Americans. But this increase could also have a negative effect on employment. A <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2019-07/CBO-55410-MinimumWage2019.pdf">report</a> from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) concluded that this extra cost to businesses would indeed cause a drop in people living under the poverty line, but also the loss of 1.3 million jobs nationwide.</p>
<p>The truth is that the risk is not the same across the country. It depends on the state, those that are currently the furthest from $15 per hour being the most at risk. As it happens, states greatly differ in their economic situation. For example, in 2019, California had a minimum wage of $12 per hour, that is, 56% of the median wage (such that half of the employees earn less and the other half earn more). On the other hand, in Louisiana, average labor productivity is <a href="https://www.bls.gov/lpc/state-productivity.htm">21% lower</a> than in California. There, the federal minimum of $7.25 applies, that is, 44% of the median wage.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375141/original/file-20201215-22-s9khoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375141/original/file-20201215-22-s9khoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375141/original/file-20201215-22-s9khoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375141/original/file-20201215-22-s9khoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375141/original/file-20201215-22-s9khoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375141/original/file-20201215-22-s9khoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375141/original/file-20201215-22-s9khoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375141/original/file-20201215-22-s9khoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Source: BLS (OES survey), authors provided.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is, however, another argument for increasing the minimum wage at the federal level. The gap between minimum wage and median wage for full-time jobs is much lower in the United States than in most developed countries. For example, in 2019, the federal minimum was only 32% of the median wage, whereas in France, it represented 61% of the median wage.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375140/original/file-20201215-21-1yt6hdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375140/original/file-20201215-21-1yt6hdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375140/original/file-20201215-21-1yt6hdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=223&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375140/original/file-20201215-21-1yt6hdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=223&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375140/original/file-20201215-21-1yt6hdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=223&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375140/original/file-20201215-21-1yt6hdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375140/original/file-20201215-21-1yt6hdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375140/original/file-20201215-21-1yt6hdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Source: OCDE, authors provided.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Increasing the federal minimum wage could be an efficient way to assist low-income American workers in a post-pandemic world. The Republican Senate may yet block the Democrats’ proposal of $15 per hour in 2021, as they did in 2019. However, the fact that several Republican states plan to increase their minimum leaves hope for, perhaps, a more modest increase.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Translated from the French by Rosie Marsland for <a href="http://www.fastforword.fr/en">Fast ForWord</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>The Fact check US section received support from <a href="https://craignewmarkphilanthropies.org/">Craig Newmark Philanthropies</a>, an American foundation fighting against disinformation.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151776/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour is a campaign promise by Joe Biden. What do we know about the effectiveness and limitations of this measure?Thérèse Rebière, Maître de conférences en économie, Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (CNAM)Isabelle Lebon, Professeur des Universités, directrice adjointe du Centre de recherche en économie et management, Université de Caen NormandieLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1505642020-11-26T16:08:19Z2020-11-26T16:08:19ZHas America become poorer under Donald Trump, as Joe Biden claims?<p>During the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8Z9Kqhrh5c">first televised presidential debate</a> and on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/06/20/joe-bidens-claim-that-almost-half-americans-live-poverty/">several occasions</a> during the campaign, President-elect Joe Biden stated that during Donald Trump’s time in office, the United States became poorer, weaker and more violent.</p>
<p>Biden’s assertions about poverty are based on a <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5743308460b5e922a25a6dc7/t/5f87c59e4cd0011fabd38973/1602733471158/Covid-Projecting-Poverty-Monthly-CPSP-2020.pdf">University of Columbia study</a> that analyzed and modeled the monthly poverty rate of American families before, during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. The results indicate that, even in a best-case scenario, the monthly poverty rate increased from 15% to 16.7% between February and September 2020. In other words, poverty is on the rise, and has risen considerably since Trump took office in January 2017 due to the unprecedented health crisis that has struck <a href="https://www.banquemondiale.org/fr/news/press-release/2020/10/07/covid-19-to-add-as-many-as-150-million-extreme-poor-by-2021">countries throughout the world</a>.</p>
<h2>Multiple definitions of poverty</h2>
<p>At the same time, it is important to remember that there is no international consensus about the definition of poverty. The two major organizations, the <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/understanding-poverty">World Bank</a> and the <a href="https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-1-no-poverty.html">United Nations Development Program</a>, agree on the causes of poverty but not on its definition. The former uses a monetary approach, focusing on the level of income needed to sustain one adult. Monetary poverty is defined as a level of consumption of less than $1.90 per day. The latter uses three notions: extreme poverty, meaning insufficient income to cover basic nutritional needs, defined as a minimum number of required calories (1,800 calories per person per day according to the WHO); general poverty, relating to basic, non-nutritional needs; and human poverty, defined according to indicators such as illiteracy, poor maternal health, preventable diseases and so on.</p>
<p>Access to resources is the common denominator in these definitions. More resources mean less poverty. In the United States, the Census Bureau provides poverty data. Let’s consider how poverty rates changed under Donald Trump, based on these various definitions.</p>
<h2>Trump took office during an economic expansion</h2>
<p>Prior to Trump’s taking power, unemployment had risen spectacularly during the 2008 financial crisis, which took place at the end of George W. Bush’s presidency and lasted into the beginning of Barack Obama’s first term. After 2012, it dropped steadily. Of course, unemployment means fewer resources.</p>
<p>Obama’s record was marred by the financial crisis he inherited (3.3 million more people were impacted), an opioid epidemic in rural areas and an inability to control rising healthcare costs, despite the passage of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/fact-check-us-is-obamacare-dysfunctional-and-too-expensive-as-trump-claims-149083">Affordable Care Act</a>. Poverty rose across demographics but African Americans, who are <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/02/27/examining-the-black-white-wealth-gap/">10 times poorer</a> than whites, were the hardest hit, further exacerbating inequalities. Among the poorest populations, life expectancy dropped, due to factors such as suicide, overdose, alcoholism and violent crime.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366111/original/file-20201028-23-djwwc9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366111/original/file-20201028-23-djwwc9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366111/original/file-20201028-23-djwwc9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366111/original/file-20201028-23-djwwc9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366111/original/file-20201028-23-djwwc9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366111/original/file-20201028-23-djwwc9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366111/original/file-20201028-23-djwwc9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Changes in unemployment since the 2008 financial crisis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.statista.com/chart/17878/unemployment-rate-in-the-united-states/">Stastita</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When Trump took office in January 2017, the American economy was back on track. The country had entered a period of expansion that would be described as the longest in its history. In December 2019, unemployment was at 3.5%, its lowest rate in half a century. Yet in the same year, the poverty rate in the United States was around 18%, with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ranking the United States <a href="https://data.oecd.org/inequality/poverty-rate.htm">fourth on its poverty rate index</a>. At the time, more than one in ten Americans suffered from food insecurity and 37 million Americans resorted to federal food assistance for low- and no-income people. This instability was largely due to the fact that half of all American households do not have sufficient savings to deal with unexpected expenses.</p>
<h2>Increased inequality is harder on minorities</h2>
<p>What was the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic? According to a <a href="https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/102605/2020-poverty-projections-assessing-three-pandemic-aid-policies-projections-of-heroes-act-policies-by-race-and-by-state-august-through-december.pdf">2020 study</a> by the Urban institute, rising poverty in the United States did not impact all Americans equally. In households where at least one person lost his/her job due to the health crisis, the rate of poverty between August and December is estimated at 15.6%, as compared to the annual projected rate of 9.1%. African American and Hispanic households with at least one job loss were disproportionately affected: the poverty rate in these communities should be close to 20% for the August-December period 2020, deepening disparities.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366114/original/file-20201028-21-iwms4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366114/original/file-20201028-21-iwms4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366114/original/file-20201028-21-iwms4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366114/original/file-20201028-21-iwms4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366114/original/file-20201028-21-iwms4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366114/original/file-20201028-21-iwms4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366114/original/file-20201028-21-iwms4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Unemployment skyrocketed in March 2020 due to the health crisis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf">Bureau of Labor Statistics</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.feedingamerica.org/research/coronavirus-hunger-research">Feeding America</a>, the largest network of food banks in the United States, nearly one in six Americans suffered from food insecurity in 2020, including 18 million children. The network reported that 98% of its distribution outlets have seen a rise in demand since the beginning of the crisis, in March 2020, and 37% are facing imminent resource shortages. The <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5743308460b5e922a25a6dc7/t/5f87c59e4cd0011fabd38973/1602733471158/Covid-Projecting-Poverty-Monthly-CPSP-2020.pdf">study</a> on which Joe Biden bases his assertions also indicates that the increase in poverty rates is higher among African Americans, Hispanics and children.</p>
<p>The government assistance and unemployment payments set out in the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3548/text">CARES act</a>, the relief plan adopted in March 2020, enabled over 18 million people to escape monthly poverty in April, but this figure dropped to around 4 million people in August and September after additional aid for the unemployed expired. Since these measures were not extended, the monthly poverty rate was higher in September 2020 than at the start of the year.</p>
<p>The United States is undoubtedly poorer at the end of Donald Trump’s time in office. Having undermined its social safety net, the president deprived the country of crucial weapons in the fight against poverty, at a time when an unprecedented health crisis set it soaring.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article was written in collaboration with Ons Kaabia, University of Sousse, Tunisia; Farhat Hached, Sousse Faculty of Medicine; and Laura Alliche and Paul Boyer, Tours University Public School of Journalism (EPJT). It was translated from the French by Alice Heathwood for <a href="http://www.fastforword.fr/en">Fast ForWord</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>The Fact check US section received support from <a href="https://craignewmarkphilanthropies.org/">Craig Newmark Philanthropies</a>, an American foundation fighting against disinformation.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150564/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olfa Kaabia ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Stunned by the health crisis, the United States is marked by a sharp rise in inequality. Between the beginning and the end of his mandate, Donald Trump will indeed have seen the country become poorer.Olfa Kaabia, Professeure Associée en Finance, INSEEC Grande ÉcoleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1405252020-06-17T16:31:35Z2020-06-17T16:31:35ZBlack Americans, crucial workers in crises, emerge worse off – not better<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341911/original/file-20200615-65947-3lfll4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5066%2C3379&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A group of sharecroppers, evicted from their land in the Great Depression, stand beside a Missouri road in January 1939.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/evicted-sharecroppers-along-highway-60-new-madrid-county-news-photo/982759676">GHI/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On June 19, 1865 – 155 years ago – black Americans celebrating <a href="https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/historical-legacy-juneteenth">the day of Jubilee</a>, later known as Juneteenth, may have expected a shot at real opportunity. Freedom from <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/early-republic-and-antebellum-history/unrequited-toil-history-united-states-slavery?format=PB">slavery</a> should have been freedom to climb up the economic ladder, helped – or at least not hindered – by a nation newly <a href="http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm">rededicated to human equality</a>.</p>
<p>Black Americans had <a href="https://www.historynet.com/african-americans-in-the-civil-war">served in the war</a>, too, making up more than 10% of the Union Army, a quarter of the Union Navy and untold numbers <a href="https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/bindingwounds/nursing.html">aiding</a> the Union effort. </p>
<p>In many national crises since then, black Americans have also been essential workers. </p>
<p>But serving in crucial roles has not resulted in economic equality. Government responses to economic crises have historically set black Americans back relative to whites, stripping black wealth and setting new and stronger barriers in paths to success – even in times of national economic growth.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341952/original/file-20200615-65947-1r9661j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341952/original/file-20200615-65947-1r9661j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341952/original/file-20200615-65947-1r9661j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341952/original/file-20200615-65947-1r9661j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341952/original/file-20200615-65947-1r9661j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341952/original/file-20200615-65947-1r9661j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341952/original/file-20200615-65947-1r9661j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341952/original/file-20200615-65947-1r9661j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Attendees at a Juneteenth Emancipation Day celebration in Texas in 1900.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Emancipation_Day_celebration_-_1900-06-19.jpg">Mrs. Charles Stephenson (Grace Murray)/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>After the Civil War</h2>
<p>In the late 1860s, white Southerners desperate to rebuild their war-torn states took advantage of newly freed black workers – but did not treat them fairly.</p>
<p>States like Mississippi declared it <a href="https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/reconstruction/mississippi-black-code-1865/">illegal to be unemployed</a>, forcing former bondspeople to take whatever jobs they could, under whatever terms were offered. </p>
<p>Most African Americans’ living options were limited, too. Sharecropping – renting farmland with a percentage of the harvest – soon trapped many families in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/debt-slavery">perpetual debt</a>. Government land grants in the form of homesteading were <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-why-black-families-have-struggled-for-decades-to-gain-wealth-2019-02-28">mostly off-limits to black people</a>. African-descended landowners often <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469628721/the-land-was-ours/">had their real estate stolen by whites</a>.</p>
<p>Convict leasing jump-started Southern industrialization. When black citizens arrested for petty crimes couldn’t pay the fine, courts contracted out their labor. A conviction for trumped-up charges like “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/14301/slavery-by-another-name-by-douglas-a-blackmon/">selling cotton after sun set</a>” could result in a debt that could never be paid.</p>
<p>Imaginary offenses could, effectively, carry life sentences: <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/10/origin-prison-slavery-shane-bauer-american-prison-excerpt.html">40% of prisoners</a> leased to Alabama mines died in 1870. Black women and children too were <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469630007/chained-in-silence/">forced to work in fields and factories</a> for no pay.</p>
<p>By 1880, black workers earned 34 cents for every dollar <a href="http://www.csun.edu/%7Ehfeco002/black%20white%20income%20gap.pdf">white workers earned nationally</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341953/original/file-20200615-65916-1gi9y3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341953/original/file-20200615-65916-1gi9y3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341953/original/file-20200615-65916-1gi9y3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341953/original/file-20200615-65916-1gi9y3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341953/original/file-20200615-65916-1gi9y3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341953/original/file-20200615-65916-1gi9y3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341953/original/file-20200615-65916-1gi9y3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341953/original/file-20200615-65916-1gi9y3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">These nine men, who won the French Croix de Guerre for gallantry in action, were among troops in the 369th Infantry Regiment, an all-black unit in World War I.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:369th_15th_New_York.jpg">U.S. National Archives/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Early 20th century</h2>
<p>During the First World War, African Americans were <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/african-americans-in-wwi-4158185">drafted disproportionately</a> to serve in uniform. </p>
<p>Wartime manufacturers also recruited black workers to cities like Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia to make war materiel. But instead of welcoming refugees from Southern poverty and discrimination, the first wave of what became the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/great-migration">Great Migration</a> was <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/african-americans-in-wwi-4158185">met with violence</a>.</p>
<p>African American migrants seizing economic opportunity were crowded into rundown housing, paying high rents and <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691156163/debtor-nation">ruinous interest rates on consumer credit</a>. Better-paying unionized jobs were <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691134659/black-and-blue">reserved for whites</a>, and during the Great Depression, African Americans with scant job security and resources were most at risk.</p>
<p>Again in World War II, black Americans were a vital domestic labor force and a backbone of U.S. forces globally, fighting for a “<a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-african-american-soldiers-saw-world-war-ii-two-front-battle-180964616/">double victory</a>” against fascism abroad and racism at home.</p>
<p>But black veterans were deliberately excluded from benefits meant to <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691170497/unequal-gains">improve economic opportunity</a>, including college educations, job training and homeownership, <a href="https://www.history.com/news/gi-bill-black-wwii-veterans-benefits">which went disproportionately to white</a> veterans. Those benefits led to a <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/When-Affirmative-Action-Was-White/">massive expansion of the white middle class</a> in the mid-20th century. </p>
<p>Because government-insured home loans were <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/The-Color-of-Law/">unavailable in black neighborhoods</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/local/309/2019/05/30/728122642/contract-buying-robbed-black-families-in-chicago-of-billions">predatory rent-to-own schemes</a> stripped billions from black households. By 1963, the median white household in the U.S. had <a href="https://apps.urban.org/features/wealth-inequality-charts/">19 times</a> the wealth of the typical nonwhite one.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341954/original/file-20200615-65947-1cf36kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341954/original/file-20200615-65947-1cf36kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341954/original/file-20200615-65947-1cf36kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341954/original/file-20200615-65947-1cf36kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341954/original/file-20200615-65947-1cf36kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341954/original/file-20200615-65947-1cf36kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341954/original/file-20200615-65947-1cf36kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341954/original/file-20200615-65947-1cf36kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lady Bird Johnson, the first lady, visits a Head Start early education classroom in 1966.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/596401">U.S. National Archives</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Into the 1960s</h2>
<p><a href="https://inequality.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/media/_media/working_papers/laurent_king-war-on-poverty.pdf">Antipoverty efforts</a> like the 1964 <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Economic-Opportunity-Act">Economic Opportunity Act</a> were passed as part of a <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/poverty/reports/2014/01/07/81661/the-war-on-poverty-then-and-now/">War on Poverty</a>. Programs like Head Start, Medicaid and the Job Corps were <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/28/lbj-great-society-josh-zeitz-book-216538">somewhat effective</a> at narrowing inequality. But they were controversial because they targeted black poverty, propagating racist <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/dog-whistle-politics-9780190841805?cc=us&lang=en&">accusations</a> of unfairness. </p>
<p>The Vietnam War helped <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/opinion/vietnam-war-great-society.html">erode support</a> and resources for antipoverty policies. Yet African Americans again served disproportionately, making up <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/opinion/racism-vietnam-war.html">23% of combat personnel</a> in 1967, double the proportion of black Americans in the overall population.</p>
<p>By then, black Americans had been excluded from the “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691175737/the-great-exception">great exception</a>,” an unprecedented rise in middle-class membership and relative economic equality.</p>
<p>Outlawing discrimination did not, however, overthrow the structural racism that impeded equality. The 1968 Fair Housing Act prohibited racial discrimination. But <a href="https://theconversation.com/3-things-schools-should-teach-about-americas-history-of-white-supremacy-111347">redlining</a> – excluding black neighborhoods from loan guarantees – was replaced by “<a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469653662/race-for-profit/">predatory inclusion</a>.” In cities like Detroit, lenders targeted black customers likely to default so they could seize the property and collect government loan guarantees. Such practices stripped wealth while not alleviating racial economic inequality. </p>
<p>The war on drugs led to mass incarceration of nonwhite drug offenders and <a href="https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/war-drugs-has-made-policing-more-violent">aggressive policing</a> of nonwhite neighborhoods. A conviction could be an <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/social-mobility-memos/2014/09/30/how-the-war-on-drugs-damages-black-social-mobility/">economic life sentence</a>, because of lost wages while imprisoned, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-went-from-prison-to-professor-heres-why-criminal-records-should-not-be-used-to-keep-people-out-of-college-97038">reduced educational</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/banning-the-box-would-help-people-released-from-prison-rebuild-their-lives-45539">employment opportunities</a> for former prisoners.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257104/original/file-20190204-193229-4jv9zb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257104/original/file-20190204-193229-4jv9zb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257104/original/file-20190204-193229-4jv9zb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257104/original/file-20190204-193229-4jv9zb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257104/original/file-20190204-193229-4jv9zb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257104/original/file-20190204-193229-4jv9zb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257104/original/file-20190204-193229-4jv9zb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Martin Luther King Jr. often spoke of economic justice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-DC-USA-APHS348927-Dr-Martin-Luther-/41998f155f5b41d0af6f2f2ae99e6374/390/0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Great Recession and then a pandemic</h2>
<p>The 2008 housing crisis destroyed <a href="https://nlihc.org/resource/report-shows-african-americans-lost-half-their-wealth-due-housing-crisis-and-unemployment">nearly half of black wealth</a> in foreclosures and lost equity.</p>
<p>On the eve of the COVID-19 crisis, the typical black family had <a href="https://apps.urban.org/features/wealth-inequality-charts/">1/12th</a> the wealth of the typical white family, and the racial wealth gap was growing. Black families <a href="http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/assets/documents/race_paper.pdf">are likelier to get poorer with each generation</a> than to get wealthier.</p>
<p>In 2016 “the median black-white earning gap” was <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/158142/black-wage-gap-income-inequality">the same proportion as in 1950</a>. Analyses indicate that in 20 years, without policy turnarounds, the typical black American family will <a href="https://ips-dc.org/report-the-road-to-zero-wealth/">have less wealth than today</a>.</p>
<p>Factors widening black-white wealth inequality include <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2329496516686620">higher black education debt</a>, low <a href="https://socialequity.duke.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Bootstraps-are-for-Black-Kids-Sept.pdf">intergenerational wealth transfer</a> and racial barriers to <a href="https://tcf.org/content/report/racism-inequality-health-care-african-americans/?agreed=1">health care access</a>.</p>
<p>Many African-descended Americans are again <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/black-workers-covid/">essential workers in the COVID-19 crisis</a>, ensuring deliveries and providing health care. Black Americans constitute <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/racial-ethnic-minorities.html">one-third of the cases</a> nationally. Paradoxically, many of those essential jobs are also insecure, so the economic slowdown is also creating <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/06/04/black-unemployment-2020-joblessness-compounds-anguish-over-brutality/3138521001/">higher black unemployment</a>.</p>
<p>Black lives have been taken for granted amid the persistent forces of racial inequality, and what journalist and author Ta-Nehisi Coates terms “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/">the quiet plunder</a>” has allowed economic white supremacy to reemerge from each crisis.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140525/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Calvin Schermerhorn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In many national crises, black Americans have been essential workers – but serving in crucial roles has not resulted in economic equality.Calvin Schermerhorn, Professor of History, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.