Texas

DhhD

(4,695 posts) Sun Jan 24, 2016, 10:45 AM Jan 2016

The Middle Class Is Being Gutted In Texas By Rich Americans

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/opinion/dickerson-the-middle-class-is-being-gutted-in-texa/np9D3/?icmp=statesman_internallink_referralbox_free-to-premium-referral
snip
Perhaps more disconcerting is the fact that rich Americans are flourishing financially at the expense of middle- and lower-income workers. That is, rich households received 49 percent of total income in 2014. That is a dramatic jump from 29 percent that they earned in 1970. During this same period, the share of total income for middle-income households dropped from 62 percent to 43 percent.

This trend probably will continue. Most job growth will come from occupations that pay relatively low wages, according to recent data assembled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Many jobs that have helped propel workers into the middle class — positions that involve routine or repetitive tasks, such as postal clerks, executive secretaries, bookkeepers, accountants and auditing clerks — will continue to shrink during the next 10 years. On the other hand, jobs that pay low wages — such as home health aides or retail and fast food workers — will proliferate.
more at link

$15 an hour is needed now. Increases are needed annually.

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The Middle Class Is Being Gutted In Texas By Rich Americans (Original Post) DhhD Jan 2016 OP

They're certainly being driven out of Austin hobbit709 Jan 2016 #1

$21.60 per hour is a living wage in Texas for 2015, which still falls short for a family. DhhD Jan 2016 #2

hobbit709

(41,694 posts)

1. They're certainly being driven out of Austin

Reply to DhhD (Original post)

Sun Jan 24, 2016, 11:26 AM

Jan 2016

DhhD

(4,695 posts)

2. $21.60 per hour is a living wage in Texas for 2015, which still falls short for a family.

Reply to DhhD (Original post)

Mon Jan 25, 2016, 11:28 AM

Jan 2016

http://fusion.net/story/171317/15-an-hour-still-isnt-a-living-wage-in-every-single-state/
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I used MIT’s living wage calculator to compare basic costs across the country, and they offer a pretty straightforward definition of what goes into it:

The living wage model is an alternative measure of basic needs. It is a market-based approach that draws upon geographically specific expenditure data related to a family’s likely minimum food, child care, health insurance, housing, transportation, and other basic necessities (e.g. clothing, personal care items, etc.) costs.

So is $15 an hour a living wage for full-time workers? For millions of single Americans and two-headed households, yes. According to MIT’s calculations, it won’t make things cushy—particularly in cities with high housing costs—but it’s a considerable lift.

But $15 an hour still falls short of anything resembling a living wage for single parents. In fact, it doesn’t constitute a living wage for single parents working full-time in any of the 50 states, according to MIT’s living wage calculator. Here’s how $15 stacks up across the country against the average living wage for a single parent with one kid:

View a state by state graph to find Texas at $21.60 for one parent.

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