Poverty is in an inverse proportion with education. It should be no surprise that Tennessse a state that ranks last or next to last w.r.t. to funding and valuing education, has a high level of poverty. Poverty will only increase because of the lack of value placed on education.
In the U.S., there are more bankruptcies today than there are college graduates. There are more shopping malls than schools. If we don't start with educating the next generation, poverty will be worse than ever, making me wonder if we will even be a leading world power.

What's the living wage for a resident of Tennessee?

ACORN has been doing great work on this very problem. Here's what they have come up with for a living wage:

Prepared by ACORN Living Wage Resource Center

www.acorn.org

617-740-9500

Some questions to consider:

• How should your figure compare to the average wage of the greatest segment of low wages potentially affected by the proposal?

• What "definition" of a living wage is rhetorically most defensible/useful?

• Cost of living in area (see below)

• What makes sense given the constituency of your coalition organizations (members of community orgs, unions)

• Can you also win indexing of the wage? (if not, argue to set it higher)

• What's winnable?

Some numbers to consider:

1."Poverty Line" figures

Hourly wages based on the "2003 Poverty Guidelines" provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for a family of four = $18,400 and $15,260 for a family of three. (Campaigns have calculated their living wage using different family sizes here too, as well as different percentages of the poverty level).

For more info see http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/poverty.htm

Family of four

• $8.85 -- 52 weeks at 40 hours (2080)

• $9.20 -- 50 weeks at 40 hours (given unpaid time off)

• $10.11 -- 52 weeks at 35 hours (given "full time" is often less than 40 hrs)

• $10.51 -- 50 weeks at 35 hours (given both possibilities)

Family of three

• $7.34 -- 52 weeks at 40 hours (2080)

• $7.63 -- 50 weeks at 40 hours

• $8.38 -- 52 weeks at 35 hours

• $8.72 -- 50 weeks at 35 hours

2. Food Stamp eligibility

In order to qualify for food stamps, the federal government sets two thresholds. First, your gross income cannot exceed 130% of the poverty line. Second, your net monthly income cannot exceed 100% of the poverty line.

Family of 4 (130% of $18,400 = $23,920) Family of 3 (130% of $ 15,260 = $19,838)

• $11.50 -- 52 weeks at 40 hours • $ 9.54 -- 52 wks at 40 hrs

• $11.96 -- 50 weeks at 40 hours • $ 9.92 -- 50 wks at 40 hrs

• $13.14 -- 52 weeks at 35 hours • $10.90 -- 52 wks at 35 hrs

• $13.67 -- 50 weeks at 35 hours • $11.34 -- 50 wks at 35 hrs

Cost of Living Studies

Family Budgets and Self Sufficiency Standards

There are now countless examples of solid study methodologies that take advantage of geographically specific data on expenditures (food, housing, health care, transportation, child care. misc.) to calculate a truer “living wage” for different family sizes in different cities and states. These figures are, obviously, higher than the poverty line numbers above -- ranging from around $8.00 an hour for a single person with a child to as much as $20+ an hour for two workers and two kids; higher in more expensive cities and depending on the methodology.

Some living wage campaigns have chosen to base their ordinance's living wage on these figures. Other campaigns are using these higher "real cost of living" figures to make a point about the insufficiency of lower wages, while at the same time making their ordinance's own (lower) "living wage" figure look modest in comparison.

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in Washington, D.C. is the ultimate source on these Family Budgets. See their website at www.epinet.org and go to “poverty and family budgets”.

Their publication, How Much is Enough? Basic Family Budgets for Working Families (2000) reviews and describes methodologies to conduct cost of living studies. Their new study, Hardships in America: The Real Story of Working Families (2001), actually calculates Family Budgets (for six different family sizes) for 400 U.S. communities. It then calculates the numbers and percentages of all people in each state that fall below poverty and below the Family Budget standard. The study also presents impressive data on what hardships these families face and includes distributions by race and by region. You can use their online Family Budget Calculator to get numbers for your city or county. For more information, call Heather Boushay at EPI at 202-775-8810.

Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) has also developed a Self Sufficiency Standard that is being used in several cities, states, and by advocacy groups. For further information about the Standard, to obtain report copies, or to learn about the possibility of WOW develop the Standard for your community (Note: This is not free), contact WOW at 202-638-3143, 815 Fifteenth Street, NW, Suite 916, Washington, D.C. 20005. www.wowonline.org