“California’s $16-an-hour minimum wage may be much higher than a ‘poverty wage’ by federal standards, but high housing costs still make it difficult for low wage workers to live and make ends meet in the state, according to a new report by the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office. The report, published today, paints a picture of who low wage workers are and whether the state’s minimum wage is sufficient to address poverty and inequality.” The post California’s minimum wage isn’t enough to keep up with workers’ costs of living, report says appeared first on Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity ..read more

Children’s participation in the federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program has declined substantially over the past decade.  Many children with disabilities might be eligible for SSI, yet barriers such as a lack of knowledge of the program or perceived challenges with applying may limit participation.  In a new paper, David Wittenburg, a senior fellow at Mathematica, and Michael Levere, an assistant professor of economics at Colgate University and a senior researcher at Mathematica, use machine learning models on Medicaid administrative data to estimate that as many as 650,00 ..read more

Food insecurity among military families is a longstanding concern, with research showing the issue impacts as much as 25 percent of active-duty families. A new study from the University of Georgia adds new texture to bipartisan discussions about potential solutions, finding that approximately one in eight military families with at least one child reported using a food bank, pantries or other charitable food distribution resources in 2021. Army families were 131% more likely to use a food bank than Air Force families. Lower-ranking service members were more likely to use food distribution resou ..read more

“When both mothers and fathers in low-income families are responsive to the needs of their children, good things happen, a recent study found. And the good news is that this shared parental responsiveness was found in many families studied, said study co-author Joyce Y. Lee, assistant professor of social work at The Ohio State University.” The post In low-income families, shared parental responsiveness helps kids appeared first on Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity ..read more

“Pittsburgh’s total population hasn’t changed much in recent years, but a new housing needs assessment from the City of Pittsburgh suggests that beneath that stable topline number, the city’s demographics are changing rapidly — often at a cost to Black and lower-income residents. When officials last published a housing needs report in 2016, the city was home to 306,000 residents. That number dropped slightly to just 302,000 by 2019, but the number of households went up — a trend driven by the fact that newer households in the city are more likely to comprise one to two people, instead of three ..read more

“South Carolina sits at the top of a list for eviction notices meaning low-income renters are facing homelessness more now than ever, according to new data released on the national, statewide and local levels.” The post New data shows pattern between SC low-income renting, eviction filing appeared first on Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity ..read more

Researchers at Princeton University’s Eviction Lab have long suspected that families were disproportionately impacted by evictions. But a new study by the Lab in conjunction with the U.S. Census Bureau has produced the first-ever documentation of just how stark the impact on families from eviction is. Children under 5 make up the largest group by age of those whose households have had an eviction filed against them, adding significant psychological, emotional, environmental and educational obstacles to their healthy development. Peter Hepburn, a Statistician and Quantitative Analyst at the Evi ..read more

“As New York City inches closer to recovering all the jobs it lost during the pandemic, Manhattan — the city’s economic engine — marked a far less encouraging milestone. It now has the biggest income gap of any large county in the country.” The post New York Is Rebounding for the Rich. Nearly Everyone Else Is Struggling. appeared first on Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity ..read more

“Lower income households and Black and Latino communities will be hit hard when a confluence of U.S. economic events kick off next week, including a sharp drop in childcare funding, economists, analysts and government officials said. About 12.4%, some 41 million, of the U.S.’s 333 million people live at or below the poverty line, the Census Bureau calculates, which is set at about $29,678 for a household of two adults and two children. That rate fell to a record low in 2021 thanks to COVID-19 federal support, but has jumped as these programs expired.” The post Poor face hit as shutdown, childc ..read more

“The nation’s income and poverty report for 2022, released by the Census Bureau last week, contained a number of disturbing findings. Average earnings and household incomes failed to keep pace with inflation. The most accurately measured poverty rate rose by nearly 5 percentage points. And, worst of all, the child poverty rate more than doubled — from 5.2 to 12.4 percent. While poverty among adults is troubling enough, poverty among children is worse — since these children are more likely to have low incomes as adults than their middle- or upper-income peers. This fact violates one of our most ..read more