NEWS
Report: Minorities doing poorly
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Also by Kevin Bargnes:
- Lawmakers address gender wage disparities (April 23, 2008)
- Quake shakes part of region (April 21, 2008)
- State seeks alternatives to using international oil (April 15, 2008)
- Court candidates spend big in race (April 11, 2008)
- Minorities struggle with reading (April 7, 2008)
Related Stories:
- State income gap widens (April 24, 2002)
- Child and family poverty on the rise (October 16, 2003)
- Organization outlines recommendations for college leaders (February 25, 2004)
- Professor analysis: Factors involved in minority retention (September 26, 2002)
- University enrollment among minorities shows steady increase (October 15, 2003)
by Kevin Bargnes
Friday, April 25, 2008
Roughly 43 percent of minority families in Wisconsin are low-income and nearly 300,000 Wisconsinites have not received a high school education, according to a report released this week.
The report, released by the Center on Wisconsin Strategy at the University of Wisconsin, also shows 120,000 residents speak English poorly, 23 percent of all families are low-income and 55 percent of low-income families are spending more than a third of their income on housing.
The report classifies “low-income” as twice the national poverty line, or $39,942 for a four-person family.
“There are a set of workers and families that are really challenged by low income and lack of health insurance, despite the fact that they work and many of them long hours,” said Laura Dresser, associate director of COWS.
The report also projects that by 2030 the number of 65-year-olds in Wisconsin will be near the number of 18-year-olds.
As baby boomers and Generation X’ers retire and take their skills with them, Dresser said it is important that Wisconsin works to educate all youth and provide education to adults.
“A lot of low-income working adults need stronger basic skills,” she said. “They need reading, basic computer skills to really help them move ahead in the labor market.”
The report includes two main recommendations, the first being that the state offer educational programs to adults.
Dresser believes this will help solve problems revealed by the statistics released in the report.
“But the programs need to be easily accessible to working adults and cannot be on the typical daytime semester schedule, whether they be at nights, on weekends or more spread out over time,” she said.
The other recommendation was to increase the minimum wage and index it based on inflation. Dresser said such a plan would be good for both businesses and workers.
“Workers themselves earn a little bit of more money, and we’ve seen in study after study of minimum wage increases that firms find ways to use the workers better because they cost more,” Dresser said.
A bill passed the Democratic-controlled state Senate in January that would have increased the minimum wage from $6.50 to $7.25. The standard would be raised each year to match the rate of inflation.
Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, was a lead supporter of the bill.
“What the minimum wage is right now is not enough to support people or their families,” Decker spokesperson Carrie Lynch said. “And we want it indexed so workers at the bottom don’t have to wait another decade to get a raise like they did last time.”
The bill died when session ended last month since it had not been taken up by the Republican-controlled Assembly.
“At a time when people are concerned about losing their jobs, raising the cost to businesses is the wrong direction,” said Ryan Murray, spokesperson for Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau.
Murray said it is unlikely that a minimum wage raise would pass the Legislature so long as the Republicans control one house.
Anonymous (April 25, 2008 @ 7:00am):
As someone who has an income well below the 'poverty line' and is living comfortably, I can say that the poverty line is completely arbitrary. Although it is a good measure of a lower quantile of the income distribution, it does not reflect changes in the cost of living over time.
Once again, COWS needs to explain its statistics and acknowledge its biases.
Anonymous (April 25, 2008 @ 8:10am):
If there were fewer illegal aliens willing to work for low wages then the opportunities for citizens and legal residents would be greater. The wage levels would also rise and there would be no need for minimum wage hikes.
Anonymous (April 25, 2008 @ 8:42am):
the title of your article is very misleading
Anonymous (April 27, 2008 @ 10:42am):
"As someone who has an income well below the 'poverty line' and is living comfortably, I can say that the poverty line is completely arbitrary."
College students don't count.
Anonymous (April 27, 2008 @ 9:55pm):
"As someone who has an income well below the 'poverty line' and is living comfortably, I can say that the poverty line is completely arbitrary."
Wait, do you have a big screen TV and big-time cable package? You eating steak at least three times a week? Anything else is tyranny! Just ask the Katrina refugees!
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