Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2012

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that in 2012, real median household income and the poverty rate were not statistically different from the previous year, while the percentage of people without health insurance coverage decreased.

Median household income in the United States in 2012 was $51,017, not statistically different in real terms from the 2011 median of $51,100. This followed two consecutive annual declines.

The nation’s official poverty rate in 2012 was 15.0 percent, which represents 46.5 million people living at or below the poverty line. This marked the second consecutive year that neither the official poverty rate nor the numbers of people in poverty were statistically different from the previous year’s estimates. The 2012 poverty rate was 2.5 percentage points higher than in 2007, the year before the economic downturn.

The percentage of people without health insurance coverage declined to 15.4 percent in 2012 ─ from 15.7 percent in 2011. However, the 48.0 million people without coverage in 2012 were not statistically different from the 48.6 million in 2011.

These findings are contained in the report Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2012. The following results for the nation were compiled from information collected in the 2013 Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC). The CPS-ASEC was conducted between February-April 2013 and collected information about income and health insurance coverage during the 2012 calendar year. However, the information on shared households pertains to the circumstances at the time of the survey. The CPS-based report includes comparisons with one year earlier. State and local results will be available on Thursday from the American Community Survey.

One of every 11 Utahns in poverty are college students

New U.S. Census Bureau data released Monday show that one of every 11 Utahns currently counted as living in poverty is a college student. (Poverty rates have included students who live off-campus, but those living in campus dormitories were already excluded from general poverty counts).

The number is much higher in some college towns and provides perhaps a different picture about the causes and cures for poverty there.

In Provo — home of Brigham Young University — the overall poverty rate is 32.5 percent. It drops to 21.5 percent when college students are excluded, down about 11 percentage points. That means one of every three people currently counted as living in poverty for the period of 2009-11 there are university students.

In Logan — home of Utah State University — the overall poverty rate of 31 percent drops to 24.6 percent when college students are taken out, a drop of 6.4 percentage points. It means one of every five people included in poverty rates there are students.



College "is a time in many people’s lives when they are not fully engaged in the labor force. They are investing in themselves, so they are borrowing money," said Pam Perlich, senior research economist at the University of Utah. "Education is an investment, so it [college poverty] is a short-term situation."

But impoverished students face the same daily challenges as others living in poverty.

Myla Dutton, executive director of Community Action Services and Food Bank in Provo says university students may have more resources available to them — such as help from parents — and challenges tend to be temporary.

Because of that, Bill Hulterstrom, president and CEO of the United Way of Utah County, says, his organization is focused on other low-income populations.

Some officials said they are actually surprised that students don’t account for more of the poverty in some college towns — and the new numbers may show bigger long-term problems than imagined.

Similarly, Roger Jones, executive director of the Bear River Association of Governments that oversees some anti-poverty programs in Cache, Box Elder and Rich counties, said the 24.6 percent poverty rate in Logan without counting students "surprises me. It’s higher than I thought."

Separating out students from others in poverty may help give a clearer picture of different causes of poverty, and help better target programs to overcome them, Perlich said.

It could help with some public relations, too. Provo for years has turned up in stories alongside such cities as Detroit and New Orleans as places with among the nation’s highest poverty — although causes and solutions may now be more easily shown as quite different.

But that doesn’t mean the community can afford to ignore what is a real challenge, say leaders.

The new data comes from the 2009-2011 American Community Survey, and is in a new working paper entitled, "Examining the Effect of Off-Campus College Students on Poverty Rates."

Following are some data about other Utah areas with universities:

• Sanpete County, home of Snow College in Ephraim. Its overall poverty rate is 16.1 percent. It
  drops to 12.2 percent without students, a drop of 3.9 percentage points.
• Cedar City, home of Southern Utah University. Its overall poverty rate is 24.5 percent.
  Without students, it drops to 21 percent, a drop of 3.5 percentage points.
• St. George, home of Dixie College. The overall poverty rate of 15 percent drops to 13 percent
  without students, down 2 percentage points.
• Salt Lake City. Its poverty rate of 20.8 percent drops to 18.9 percent without students, a drop
  of 1.8 percentage points.
• Orem, home to Utah Valley University. The poverty rate of 15.5 percent drops to 14 percent
  without students, down 1.5 percentage points.
• Ogden, home of Weber State University. Its poverty rate of 23.7 percent drops to 22.6

percent without students, down 1.1 percentage points.

Salt Lake Tribune

Poverty committee begins trek for solutions

During its first meeting of the Intergenerational Poverty Advisory Committee, they discussed getting others involved, creating focus groups and providing social training to help end poverty. The committee is composed of members of advocacy groups, academic experts, faith-based organizations and local government representatives that focus on childhood poverty or education.

The meeting began with introductions and a review of the 2012 Intergenerational Poverty Report which shows that 364,822 people — or 13.2 percent the state's population — live in poverty. The number of children in poverty is 136,751, or 16 percent of Utah's child population. 

One of the major discussions of the meeting was the need for more information and statistics so the committee knows what works in overcoming intergenerational poverty. Deseret News

The future of food?

The new world of 3D printing is on its way to revolutionizing personal weapons after the successful test of the first entirely 3D printed gun in early May, but mechanical engineer Anjan Contractor sees a different future for 3D printing: ending world hunger.

"One of the major advantages of a 3D printer is that it provides personalized nutrition," Contractor said. "If you're male, female, someone is sick — they all have different dietary needs. If you can program your needs into a 3D printer, it can print exactly the nutrients that person requires." Deseret News

Middle-income claptrap

Economic backwardness has its advantages. Latecomers to industrialization can follow the path their forerunners broke before them and perhaps skip some steps along the way. As a result, poor countries can narrow the gap with rich ones. But this happy principle of economic convergence does not always hold sway. Some poor countries fail to get going. Others make quick progress, and then lose their way. The first lot is sometimes described as victims of a “poverty trap”. The second are increasingly described as casualties of a “middle-income trap”.

But is the middle-income trap worthy of the name? Is there something especially treacherous about the levels of development that China is now approaching? Despite the term’s popularity, the theory and evidence behind it are surprisingly thin.

First, the theory. Rich countries boast the best technologies; poor countries the lowest wages. Middle-income countries have neither. Intuition suggests they must struggle to compete with countries above and below them. Poor countries also benefit from moving workers out of over manned farms and into factories, where they are many times more productive. But a decade or two of fast growth will empty the fields of surplus workers, obliging countries to raise productivity within their factories if they are to make further progress. Their economies would seem to face a tricky jump from one growth model to another.

But intuition can mislead. Both pay and productivity exist along a continuum. Countries can remain “competitive” at any level of wages and productivity, provided one stays in line with the other. The evolution from one growth model to another is also continuous. Factories do not wait until the last underemployed laborer has left the farm to begin improving the productivity of the workers who have already arrived. Moreover, as the urban workforce grows in size, a steady flow of new arrivals from the villages makes a smaller proportionate impact.

So much for the theory, what about the evidence? The middle-income trap is rarely defined clearly enough to be tested. Some of its proponents argue that middle-income countries typically grow more slowly than richer and poorer economies. That is claptrap. If anything, they grow faster. The left-hand chart uses the Penn World Tables, which compare incomes across countries and over time from 1950 to 2010. Economies with an income per head of $13,000-14,000 (at purchasing-power parity) achieved per-person growth of almost 2.9% over the next ten years on average. That is faster than the average for any other income level. The Economist

Bill to create commission to study intergenerational poverty advances to Senate

A bill to create a state commission to develop policy recommendations to end intergenerational poverty has been forwarded to the Utah Senate.

The Senate Economic Development and Workforce Development Committee voted unanimously Monday to give the bill a favorable recommendation.

The proposed commission would be made up of the executive directors of the state departments of health, human services and workforce services, as well as the state superintendent of instruction and the juvenile court administrator.

The commission would collaborate on policy recommendations to "help children escape the consequences of intergenerational poverty," said Sen. Stuart Reid, R-Ogden, sponsor of SB53.

The bill also would create an advisory committee of representatives of faith organizations, child advocacy groups and nonprofit organizations to assist the commission. Deseret News

Can the poverty cycle be halted in Utah?

Sen. Stuart Reid, R-Ogden, is sponsoring legislation to establish a commission to study recently released data on intergenerational poverty in Utah and to develop policy recommendations to break the cycle of kids in poverty becoming adults in poverty.

Last year, Utah lawmakers passed a bill that requires the state Department of Workforce Services to create a system to track intergenerational poverty data to identify at-risk children.

The report found that 364,822 people live in poverty in Utah, about 13.2 percent of the state's population. Children in poverty number 136,751 or almost 16 percent of the state's child population.

A newly established commission would include the executive directors of the state departments of Workforce Services, Health, Human Services, the state superintendent of public instruction, the state juvenile court administrator or their designees, and a nonvoting chairman.

Initially, some lawmakers were skeptical of Reid's vision for addressing intergenerational poverty. But as the data have become available, Reid's focus on children has garnered greater support among his legislative colleagues, he said. Deseret News

Utah ranks last in school breakfasts for low-income students

Breakfast may be considered the most important meal of the day by most people, but according to a new report by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), there is a good chance that many students in Utah are not getting that meal to help jump start their day.

According to the report released by FRAC, Utah ranks last in the nation for the percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches and who also participated in the breakfast program. The study, based on data from the 2011-2012 school year, shows that only 33.9 percent of Utah students who qualified participated in the school breakfast program, compared to 70.2 percent in New Mexico, the state that had the highest participation rates. Utah was also the only state that did not see an increase in the number of students that participated.

 FRAC is a non-profit organization that works to develop public and private policies “to eradicate domestic hunger and under-nutrition,” according to their website. According to the group’s report, higher numbers of students participating in the school breakfast program “supports health and academic achievement for low-income children.” FRAC’s data suggests that students who participate generally demonstrate better behavior, resulting in fewer classroom disruptions. They also experience fewer absences, and demonstrate fewer emotional and behavioral problems, according to FRAC. Times-Independent

Statewide Homeless Point-in-Time Count to be conducted today

Public, private and non-profit homeless service providers will conduct an annual Point-In-Time Count of the homeless population in Utah today, January, 31. Additional surveys will be conducted February 1-2 in Salt Lake County.

Every year the State of Utah through the State Community Services Office participates in a physical count of all homeless individuals across the state to determine how many people were homeless on a single night, or Point-In-Time. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires that states complete a physical count of both sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons in 2013. During the three day count, homeless Utahns will be asked where they spent the night of Wednesday, January 30. Department of Workforce Services

Donation to homeless when filing taxes discussed at U. panel

Vaughn Davis is one of many who have found success with the help of a case worker, who directed him to permanent supportive housing (PSH) while he got on his feet.

Davis lives at Kelly Benson Apartments, a complex that provides low cost housing for up to 70 people who are seniors with disabling conditions or are chronically homeless. Through the program, Davis now works at the front desk of the West Valley apartment complex.

"Through my case worker, I now have a part-time job and it’s wonderful," Davis said during a panel discussion on homelessness at the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics on Thursday.
Shrinking the homeless population is a goal several advocates who spoke at Thursday’s panel believe can be achieved.

Davis shared his story during the discussion, which also included community advocates, directors of nonprofit organizations and the Department of Workforce Services.

Among the issues addressed was the inaugural campaign of the Pamela Atkinson Trust Fund. When Utahns file their state taxes this year they can donate on line 28 a minimum of $2 to the trust fund to help build more housing for the homeless population.

Director of The Road Home, Matt Minkevitch, said a recent study done at Penn State University showed 90 percent of those entering a homeless shelter stayed for only a short time, and never needed the services again. The remaining 10 percent had a chronically homeless problem.

He said as more housing is created; the facilities around the valley will be able to shrink the shelter populations through offering other housing options.

Anne Burkholder, CEO of the YWCA of Salt Lake City, said many of the people who seek the YWCA’s services have homes, but often have chosen to leave to escape a domestic violence situation. Up to 175 individuals stay at YWCA, with some women and children staying up to 2 1/2 years.

"Our hope is to surround them with love and normality … to help them see that life can be different and support them," Burkholder said. Salt Lake Tribune

Tax Relief for Utah Workers: A State EITC?

Some momentum may be building in this year's Utah Legislature to enact a state Earned Income Tax Credit.

The credit could be claimed only by low-wage workers, and the most recent proposals have pegged it at 5 percent of the federal EITC. In past years, state lawmakers couldn't agree on how to fund it, at an estimated $21 million. But Utah is doing better financially, according to state budget forecasts, and Tracy Gruber, policy analyst for Voices for Utah Children, says the EITC is sure to come up again.

"There certainly is support within the Senate, as we saw last year - it passed the Senate on second reading and then did not pass on third due to lack of funding - and a bit more interest in the House."

Compared with other states, Utah has seen one of the highest increases in the number of people using the federal EITC since the start of the recession. Slightly more than 18 percent of taxpayers in Utah claim the credit, according to a study by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. Gruber says that money lifts more than 33,000 Utah children above the poverty line.

The federal EITC can range from a few hundred dollars to almost $6,000, depending on income and family size. A 5 percent state EITC would be much more modest, but Allison Rowland, Voices for Utah Children's director of budget and research, says it still would send an important message.

"It's something that serves as a symbolic way of saying, 'We understand that many jobs are low-paying, but we want you to work. As a state, we think work is important, for many reasons.'"

Even $100 is no small amount for a family living on the edge, Rowland says. It could pay for a few months' worth of diapers or cover the vehicle-registration and emissions-testing fees for the family car.

Gov. Gary Herbert has voiced his support for the federal EITC, but a state EITC wasn't included in his new budget. Public News Service

Child Poverty over 30% in Some Utah counties, though state rate is low

More and more of Utah's children are being born into poverty.

Utah's overall poverty rate now sits at 13.5 percent, but the 2011 rate for children is much higher, at 16.3 percent, up from 2010.

That amounts to 141,000 children living in poverty within the state.

That has child advocates like Terry Haven worried. Poverty is a good predictor of many - sometime lifelong - problems and difficulties.

Some areas in Utah are particularly bad. Seven counties were at levels higher than 20 percent, including Grand, Iron, Millard, Sanpete, Sevier, Washington and Wayne. Piute's rate is particularly high at 36.7 percent for kids under 18.

The data was released in December from the U.S. Census Bureau's Small Area Income & Poverty Estimates, and includes data for the nation, states, counties and school districts, providing a very fine-grained view of who and where poverty exists.



How do you define poverty?

• The U.S. census uses 48 poverty thresholds depending on size and composition of the family in question, as well as several other factors.
• By way of example, a single person under 65 is in poverty if they make less than $11,702. But a family of three where all the children are related would be in poverty if it made less than $18,106.

Though the statewide numbers are lower than the national average of 22.5 percent, that doesn't mean the problem can be dismissed.

Haven stressed that while the rate of children in poverty increased only slightly from 2010, the absolute number of children in poverty continues to go up because Utah's population is increasing. That means that even if the rate stays the same, the problem is still getting worse and more resources must be devoted to helping a poor children.

"We're seeing a huge increase in the number of children in poverty over the last couple years," Haven said.

Haven said that one of Voice of Utah Children's goals for the next legislative session is to make sure that "low income, at risk children have access to high quality preschool programs."

"We know that if they don't have those kinds of opportunities, children tend to get to about third grade and they're falling behind their peers and it just follows them through rest of their schooling."

She also called for strengthening proven programs like Medicaid and CHIP, and making sure that every eligible child is benefiting from having good health insurance, even if their parents' income is below the poverty line.

Rural counties like Piute and San Juan that have especially high rates - over 30 percent, often have less access to the same services that could with comparative ease in urban centers like Salt Lake County.  KSL

Addressing Poverty Wages through the Organization of Labor

A recent topic of concern among labor economists across the country is the “hollowing out” of the labor market. Evidence indicates that middle-skilled, middle-wage jobs have been declining relative to both low-skilled, low-wage jobs and high-skilled, high-wage jobs. As a consequence of this trend, workers lacking a relatively developed skill set or without a relatively high level of educational attainment are finding that the only options available to them are low-wage jobs with hourly pay rates close to the federal minimum wage.

An article in the New York Times entitled “Unionizing the Bottom of the Pay Scale” characterizes some of the unsettling aspects of the hollowing trend in the labor market and discusses how labor union organizers are attempting to address the problem.

As the article indicates, national occupational projections show that many of the occupations producing the largest number of new jobs in the future pay low wages. According to the BLS 2010-2020 occupational projections, four of the top six fastest growing occupations ranked by largest number of new jobs pay a median wage of $10.10 an hour or less. These four occupations are, in order of their ranking, retail salespersons, home health aides, personal care aides, and food preparation and serving workers (which includes fast food workers). For a single parent with two kids, this would barely lift the family above the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2011 poverty threshold of $18,123, on the assumption that the employer hired the individual full time. Focusing on just fast food workers, the article cites research indicating that nearly three fourths of these workers live in poverty.

With such a large share of workers earning essentially poverty wages, labor unions have increased their efforts to organize workers in the lowest paying occupations. As the article’s author notes, successfully organizing some of these low-wage occupations will be difficult, partly because of high turnover in many of these occupations. However, it could perhaps become more common in the future to see striking workers where you would never expect them, such as in front of big-box retailers and fast food restaurants.

Utah Ranked Among the Top 5 Best-Run States

According to Delaware based 24/7 Wall St., Utah ranks among the best managed states in the country.

24/7 Wall St. looked at each state's debt, revenue, expenditures, and deficit to conclude how well each state is managed fiscally.

Other determining factors are taxes, exports, GDP growth, income, poverty, unemployment, high school graduation rates, crime foreclosure rates.

After weighing all this information Utah was ranked 4th in 2012.

Here is how 24/7 Wall St. made that conclusion.

• Debt per capita: $2,356 (15th lowest) 
• Budget deficit: 14.7% (25th largest) 
• Unemployment: 6.7% (tied-11th lowest) 
• Median household income: $55,869 (14th highest) 
• Percent below poverty line: 13.5% (tied-17th lowest) 

In 2011, Utah's budget deficit was $700 million. This was equal to 14.7% of the state’s GDP. This debt-to-GDP ratio was worse than half the states in the U.S. On the flip side, Utah committed to reducing expenses instead of raising taxes or increasing debt. The state also limited its borrowing. Its total debt was just under $6.5 billion in fiscal 2010, or $2,356 per capita. Utah also received the highest credit ratings available by Moody’s and S&P because of the state’s strong fiscal management. Moody’s commented that Utah has a “tradition of conservative fiscal management; rebuilding of budgetary reserves after their use in the recession; [and] a closely managed debt portfolio.” abc4

Skyrocketing Income Inequality in America Over the Past 30 years

American income inequality has skyrocketed over the past 30 years, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute.

From the report: "In the United States as a whole, the poorest fifth of households had an average income of $20,510, while the top fifth had an average income of $164,490 — eight times as much, this top-to-bottom ratio exceeded 8.0. In the late 1970s, in contrast, no state had a top-to-bottom ratio exceeding 8.0."

The United States currently has more income inequality than Pakistan or the Ivory Coast, according to a study by ThinkProgress using data from the CIA factbook. Income inequality in the United States is actually higher than at any other time in modern history since the Great Depression, according a Huffington Post article.

What circumstances created these disparate conditions? Read more: Deseret News

Advocates for Utah's poor want expanded access to Medicaid

With new figures showing that more Utahns are living in poverty, advocates gathered Saturday to discuss policies to help those growing ranks, including expanding Medicaid and maintaining low-cost mass transit.

Jennifer Hyvonen, with the Fourth Street Clinic, suggested healthcare is as important to the state’s economic development as the tax incentives Utah gives to companies to relocate here.

"For us, Medicaid expansion is an investment in Utah so we can have a strong economy, so people can continue to work, so people can pay taxes," said the external affairs director of the health care clinic that treats homeless Utahns.

As one of the speakers at the Ninth Annual People’s Summit on Poverty held in Salt Lake City, Hyvonen was preaching to the choir. The 50 or so attendees of the summit at Crossroads Urban Center work with low-income, disabled and minority Utahns.

Newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s one-year American Community Survey found 13.5 percent of Utahns — and nearly 16 percent of children — lived in poverty last year. Poverty is defined as a family of four earning $22,350 or less in gross annual income. Salt Lake Tribune

Related story - Breaking the Cycle: Children of poverty become adults of poverty Deseret News

Utah’s poverty rate climbs to 13.5 percent of population

Newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s one-year American Community Survey shows that Ullmann and single mothers like her are far from alone in the battle against poverty.

The survey found 13.5 percent of Utah’s population and 15.9 percent of the state’s children lived in poverty in 2011, a definition established by the federal government as a family of four earning $22,350 or less in gross annual income.

According to U.S. Census data for 2011, close to 10 percent of Salt Lake County households received food stamps, 17.9 percent of families with children lived in poverty, and 43 percent of single mothers with kids lived below the federal poverty line. Salt Lake Tribune

Is the average Utahn better off financially than four years ago?

New census numbers show typical Utahns are significantly worse off financially now than four years ago
— and perhaps even worse off than just a year ago, too.

The Census Bureau reported that median household income in Utah was $55,493 in 2011, down 15 percent from the last presidential election year of 2008 and off 5.1 percent from 2010.

It also said Utah’s 2011 poverty rate was 11 percent — up from 10 percent in 2010 and from 7.6 percent in 2008.

However, sample sizes for Utah in the bureau’s Current Population Survey are small, so the one-year change is not considered statistically significant — meaning it could be caused by errors in sampling as easily as by real economic changes. But the four-year change is considered statistically noteworthy.

Nationally — where sample sizes are larger and more reliable — estimates released Wednesday show the median income dropped 1.5 percent in 2011, down from $50,831 in 2010 to $50,054 in 2011 dollars. It said the national poverty rate was 15 percent, considered essentially unchanged from the previous year after three years of increases.

Despite margin-of-error issues, Juliette Tennert, Utah state demographer said the data show that "we compare favorably to other states. But compared to our history, our poverty rate is up." Salt Lake Tribune

1 in 7 Utah households struggle to afford food, USDA reports

One in seven Utah households struggles with hunger, a new federal report reveals.

Nationally, more than 50.1 million Americans lived in households that were food insecure in 2011, according to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture report.

The report showed 14.9 percent of American households were food insecure at some time during 2011, up slightly from 14.5 percent in 2010. Some 14.6 percent of Utah households were "food insecure," according to the report.

Food insecurity is the term used to describe a person or households uncertain of having or unable to acquire enough food to meet their needs or the needs of all household members because of a lack of money or other resources for food.

Rob Harter, executive director of The Christian Center of Park City, said as the nation's economy sputters, he has observed a shift in the clientele served by the nonprofit's food pantry. The pantry distributed food to more than 34,000 people last year.

Users are primarily low-wage Latino workers but a growing number of older, Caucasian seniors are seeking assistance, too.

While the pantry primarily serves residents of Wasatch and Summit counties, Harter said some people travel from Salt Lake City three times a week because "there's clearly a need."

Utahns Against Hunger is working to help people apply for public assistance programs such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP (formerly known as food stamps), to reach more people who qualify, but may not know how to access the help. Deseret News

Number of Utah kids in poverty up 45%

Utah is among 43 states where the number of children living in poverty has increased, according to the 2012 KIDS COUNT Data Book released Wednesday.

From 2005 to 2010, the number of Utah children living below the federal poverty threshold — $23,050 in gross annual income for a family of four— rose from 11 percent to 16 percent, roughly a 45 percent increase.

However, the Annie E. Casey Foundation study also ranks Utah 11th in the nation in terms of overall child well-being.

According to the national report, Utah ranked 13th among the states in terms of economic well-being even though it fared worse in all four measures, compared to previous KIDSCOUNT Data Books. Salt Lake Tribune