The Working Poor Families Project

[Hannah Bell]

The Working Poor Families Project has just released their policy brief for the winter of 2010-11.

What they have discovered is that the number of working poor in the United States is higher than they have ever seen it before and it continues to increase at a staggering pace.

* There were more than 10 million low-income working families in the United States, an increase of nearly a quarter million from the previous year.

* Forty-five million people, including 22 million children, lived in low-income working families, an increase of 1.7 million people from 2008.

* Forty-three percent of working families with at least one minority parent were low income, nearly twice the proportion of white working families (22 percent).

* Income inequality continued to grow with the richest 20 percent of working families taking home 47 percent of all income and earning 10 times that of low-income working families.

* More than half of the U.S. labor force (55 percent) has “suffered a spell of unemployment, a cut in pay, a reduction in hours or have become involuntary part-time workers” since the recession began in December 2007.


#1 In 2009, total wages, median wages, and average wages all declined in the United States.

#2 Since the year 2000, we have lost 10% of our middle class jobs. In the year 2000 there were about 72 million middle class jobs in the United States but today there are only about 65 million middle class jobs. Meanwhile, our population is getting larger.

#3 As 2007 began, only 26 million Americans were on food stamps, but now 42 million Americans are on food stamps and that number keeps rising every single month.

#4 Since 2001, over 42,000 U.S. factories have closed down for good.

#5 One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one anti-poverty program run by the federal government.

#6 Half of all American workers now earn $505 or less per week.

#7 The number of Americans working part-time jobs "for economic reasons" is now the highest it has been in at least five decades.

#8 Ten years ago, the United States was ranked number one in average wealth per adult. In 2010, the United States has fallen to seventh.

#9 In 1976, the top 1 percent of earners in the United States took in 8.9 percent of all income. By 2007, that number had risen to 23.5 percent.

#10 According to one recent study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010.


http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-working-poor

[Sinistrous]

1. For no other reason than the reality behind the facts listed here,

we must mobilize to resist the Republican corporatists and their agenda.

[midnight]

2. Washington just passed themselves a tax break and you have shown me another reason why they

had no reason to have given themselves more money..... 1 in 6 needs federal assistance. #8 Ten years ago, the United States was ranked number one in average wealth per adult. In 2010, the United States has fallen to seventh. I think Washington needs to do the right thing and repeal their tax break.... It could go to fighting poverty in this country instead of creating it....

[Sinistrous]

3. Kick

just to get these facts near the top of the list for a few moments.

They should be powerful motivators in our efforts to run the Teapublicans out of town.