Report: Half of N. Carolina families with children don't make ends meet

[Thom Little]

Nearly half of the families with children in the state don't earn enough to pay for basic living expenses, according to a biennial report released Thursday by an advocacy group seeking economic assistance for the poor.

The report by the North Carolina Budget and Tax Center determined that 521,630 families with children, or 49.1 percent of the state, can't make ends meet based on "living income standards."

The living income standards, based on U.S. Census and other figures and developed in part with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, are the earnings levels equal to the true costs of being self-sufficient in urban or rural North Carolina.

.......

When people who "are below the living income standard and working about as (hard as) many people who are above the living income standard ... it sort of flies in the faces of what we consider to be fair," Quinterno said.


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