I am continuously surprised at the things that have to be “studied” before the powers that be will even begin to acknowledge that there is a problem. In the business section of my newspaper this morning, there is a big headline: “Study: Living-wage jobs lacking.” The article goes on to say that in our Pacific Northwest, “34 percent of available jobs don’t pay enough to adequately support a single person without children, the study found, while 80 percent of those jobs fail to adequately cover expenses for a single adult with two children.” Well, duh.
Later in the article, the study reports that “in a family of four, both adults would have to bring home a combined wage of more than $26 an hour in Montana, or more than $54,000 a year, and more than $30 an hour in Oregon.” Now, for many of us who are living the reality of working to support our families, this really only puts insulting numbers to the struggles of our every day existences. For myself, I gave up years ago trying to find one decent job in my depressed region of the country and started working as many jobs as I could to provide for my family. This involved piecing together full-time, part-time and contract work in order to put food on the table and keep a moderately nice roof over our heads. This, in spite of the fact that I am an educated woman with a college degree and plenty of marketable job skills. I’m still barely above the poverty limit for a family of four!
Now, I don’t go in for whining, but despite the “study,” there really aren’t any solutions being offered. The article does point out what the standard minimum wage is and the state minimum wages are in the states involved in the study. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to discover that the minimum wage is far less than the $25-$30 an hour needed for a reasonably comfortable existence. The thing that gets me about such a study, is that it does show that individuals with families want to work, are doing the work and are, in general, working extremely hard to try to make a better life for their kids and their communities—and the system is still stacked against individuals and families. Imagine the problems and trials that could be solved for families if jobs paid a living wage?
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