Everyone needs enough income to pay for the basic necessities of daily living: shelter, food, clothing, and transportation. Without a livable-wage income, people suffer a lack of dignity and a variety of social and health problems. The livable-wage income indicator is defined as the percent of the population living in households with a total income that is less than twice the poverty level, as defined by the federal government.
Poverty by race and ethnicity is only reported at the 100% poverty level. The proportion of African Americans, Native Americans, Asian American- Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics living in poverty increased from 1979 to 1989. That proportion decreased slightly for whites (Hudson, 2002). The federal poverty level is a threshold income limit that varies according to family size and composition and is adjusted each year. All persons living in a household with a total annual income below that threshold dollar amount are counted in the 100% poverty statistics (Hellriegel,2002).
According to Federal reports, “the U.S., the economy is considerably more robust than it was just a few years ago when job growth had outpaced job loss and unemployment rates had dropped”. But these economic measures do not tell the whole story. Not all the new jobs are full-time nor do they offer the same wages or benefits that, for example, traditional manufacturing jobs did (Jacob, 1990). How are typical wage earners and their families actually faring in the marketplace today? Are they getting ahead, falling behind or just barely making it?
Franklin Delano Roosevelt stated what our country should still value, “ No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. " However what our country need in order to make a reasonably accurate assessment of what families need to get by. We must first determine what basic expenses families require and then determine what they would actually have to bring in as income in order to meet those expenses. This would provide such "basic needs budgets" for household categories and consistency in country’s state geographic areas. We should then calculate the "livable wage" needed to meet these budgets.
Households and factors to consider are:
Household Size
* Single with no children
* Single parent and one child
* Single parent and two children
* Two parents with one working
outside the home and no children
* Two parents with one working
outside the home and two children
* Two parents with both working out side the home without children
* Two parents with both working
outside the home and two children
Geographic Areas
* Statewide average for all states
Families experience tremendous stress when they earn less than a livable wage. They are forced to go without essentials and can end up in a deep hole of debt with no opportunities for advancement. The Augusta Chronicle, a local newspaper in Augusta, Georgia had an article relating to the newly designed Bankruptcy Laws. This article clearly brought clarity to the number of Americans filing for bankruptcy due largely to poverty and lack of livable wages. According to Kiyosaki, “Low wages also strain our economic, social, educational and public health systems”.
Working people should be able to independently survive without turning to public assistance programs or other means of filling their income gap( Osland,2001). Employers, policy makers, and others working for the public good should seriously consider these livable wage estimates for their region and take appropriate actions to meet the basic needs that everyone deserves.
References
Barge J. K. (1994). Leadership. New York: St. Martin Press.
Hellriegel, Don, Jackson Susan, and Slocum John W. ( 2002). Management: A CompetencyApproach.NewYork:southwestern.
Hudson, Randy and Sullivan,Teresa.(2002).The Social Organization of Work. CT: Wadsworth Group.
Jacob, M. E. L (1990). The Strategic Planning Process. New York: Schuman.
Kiyosaki, Robert. Rich Dad Poor Dad.(1997). Warner Books. Americas, New York.Warner Books Ed.
Osland Joyce S., Kolb, David A. and Rubin Irwin M. (2001). The Organizational BehaviorReader. New Jersey:Prentice Hall.