Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The struggle being poor

A minimum wage worker in California must toil about 130 hours a week in order to feasibly  afford a two-bedroom rental, a new report found. Wage earners must take home $53,627 annually, or $25.78 an hour, to afford a two-bedroom home, making California the second-least affordable state behind Hawaii, the National Low Income Housing Coalition said. In Los Angeles County, a minimum wage worker would have to put in 137 hours per week, the report said. In Orange County, that figure climbs to 156 hours. In no state can minimum wage workers do a typical 40-hour work week and spend less than 30% of their income on a two-bedroom unit. In Washington, D.C. a worker must make $27.15 per hour to afford a two-bedroom home.

Nationally, renters needed to earn $18.79 per hour to spend less than 30% of their income on a two-bedroom home. That is significantly more than the $7.25 federal minimum wage.

 Home health care aides, a crucial resource in caring for America’s sick, elderly, and disabled —  do it for an average wage of $9.70 per hour. But due to a loophole in labor protection laws, home health aides often make less than minimum wage, earning about $20,000 per year. And that’s just the full-time workers. Part-time health aides, who make up most of the profession, make even less and don’t receive benefits — leading to a sadly ironic situation in which health workers are often forced to forgo their own health care. 40% of home aides rely on public assistance, such as Medicaid and food stamps. 53% of home health aides are minorities. By their calculations, it is the single most common job for black women, who alone represent nearly a third of the entire profession. Immigrants make up 28% of home health care workers, and of those, one in five are undocumented.

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