Finding the middle class
Every Oklahoma leader should read the data on state's paycheck-to-paycheck living
It’s been a generation since Oklahoma anti-poverty advocates unveiled the “self-sufficiency standards” to explain how full-time working people with health benefits and no debt can still experience effects of poverty.
The report dispelled stereotypes about paycheck-to-paycheck living. The goal was to inform elected leaders about the shrinking middle class.
“All this time, people have always thought the problem was about budgeting poorly,” Nancy Weber, a career counselor from the YWCA/Resonance in Tulsa, told me for a story in June 2004. “The self-sufficiency standard shows us it’s not about budgeting. It’s about not making enough money. People are trying to live a middle-class lifestyle on a poverty wage.”
The self-sufficiency standards were the first indicators of a growing wealth divide. It found the middle class had shrunk from 80% in 1990 to 60% by 2004. If only people had been paying more attention.
Last week, a summit was held in Oklahoma to explain how households are falling into ALICE, meaning Asset Limited, Income Constrained and Employed. These are households above the federal poverty line but cannot afford basic expenses in the places where they live.
One major car repair can send these households to payday lenders or cause problems on the job due to transportation. They are a medical emergency away from long-time health care debt. These are working people who are a step from a domino effect that could lead to job losses and evictions.
The Tulsa Area United Way collaborated with United for ALICE and United Ways across Oklahoma to provide a comprehensive view of the financial need of families county-by-county that goes beyond the traditional poverty guidelines. The report is online at unitedforalice.org/oklahoma.
ALICE is the same type of gauge as those self-sufficiency standards of more than 20 years ago. Here are the findings:
Of the state’s nearly 1.6 million households, 16% live below the federal poverty line and 29% are ALICE. That means 45% of Oklahoma households are struggling to pay basic bills.
The professions representing the highest percentage of ALICE households are personal care aides, food service providers, health care support workers, office clerks, building cleaners and cashiers.
Among the disparities are single mothers with children - 79% are in ALICE - compared to single fathers with children at 53%.
Among ages, the young and old are most affected: 71% of people 25 and younger and 50% of adults 65 and older are in ALICE.
Hughes County has the highest percentage of households in ALICE and federal poverty at 66%. Adair County was next at 62% followed by Latimer and Okfuskee counties at 60%.
McLain County had the lowest percentage of ALICE and federally poor households at 35%. Just above at 37% is Wagoner County and at 38% are Major, Grady and Canadian counties.
Counties in the eastern part of the state show a greater percentage of households in ALICE and poverty.
Tulsa County has 43% of its households in ALICE and below federal poverty. A survival annual budget for a family of two adults and two children is $70,992, which means those adults would need an hourly wage of $35.50. With child care that rises to $84,672, requiring a minimum of $42.34 hourly wage for the parents.
The test now is what will Oklahoma’s leaders do with this information. Every elected official should be combing through the ALICE data.
Think of what our state needs: medical debt reduction, health care access, affordable housing, lower insurance (home, vehicle), food affordability, education supports (before- and after-school care, etc.), child-care assistance and expansion of job training and higher education opportunities. Businesses may need incentives to pay their workers more.
All candidates need to be talking about these issues in detail during campaign season next year.
In 2004, the self-sufficiency standards looked at 70 family types in every Oklahoma county and found increasing numbers of people falling between self-sufficiency and public benefits.
That led to an effort to put eligibility for all social service programs in one central database. Remember, the internet was still pretty new, and the government was slow in giving up its paper-and-pen processes. Some people didn’t get help because they didn’t know they qualified for assistance.
Also, the report put focus on things like increasing the minimum wage, offering child-care subsidies, expanding health care access and increasing job training programs.
A leading researcher at that time, David Blatt, was working with the Community Action Project of Tulsa County. He later founded the Oklahoma Policy Institute and led public policy for Oklahoma Appleseed. Recently, he moved to his home country of Canada.
At the summit, Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt mentioned Blatt’s earlier work in relation to the ALICE data. That’s what had me looking up those old reports. Blatt said something in June 2004 that still holds true:
“There’s a real aversion to help the lower middle-class or working poor families - those just below the self-sufficiency income.”
Maybe this time around more people will be paying attention.
Ginnie. Thank you for bringing relevancy to the conditions of our local and state conditions. Keep going!!
When a local newspaper loses its local ownership and is purchased by a Lee Enterprises media conglomerate, what happens? The news focus and content are controlled to maximize profits. And the journalistic standards are lowered to resemble a “Plainsville” narrative. Serious probing journalism is no longer required. And thus folks like Ginnie Graham are no longer needed.
Exam the journalism Ginnie provides in her blog. Compare it to how the Tulsa Wold covers a politician like Langford or Hern. They provide an outlet for their point of view but never exam Langford or Hern statements for accuracy. They never ask the second or third question. No journalist integrity in this arrangement.