By Jon Tollestrup
Hillary wants to go back to school to acquire the necessary qualifications for a higher-paying job. Like any parent, she wants to be able to provide things like health insurance for her 11-year-old daughter. The only problem is, after working 60 hours a week at two low-paying jobs and raising her daughter, Hillary wouldn?t have any time to hit the books.
In its 2005 report, ?The State of Working Utah,? the Utah Issues Center for Poverty and Research Action highlighted several stories just like Hillary?s to illustrate that escaping the clutches of poverty is becoming more difficult for the working class in poverty.
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that over the last 25 years, about 10 percent of Utahns fell under the poverty line. Last year the percentage of Utah living in poverty ranked 38th in the nation at 9.9 percent, down nine spots from 15 years ago when the poverty rate was 8 percent.
Despite this fall, Utah consistently has one of the lowest rates for poverty. But officials from anti-poverty agencies in the state said this seemingly small number still presents a big problem.
?It?s great that our poverty level is lower than most states,? said Sarah Wilhelm, on of the authors of ?The State of Working Utah.? ?But the fact that almost 10 percent of our population is living in poverty is still a problem.?
In the early 1960s, Molly Orshansky, of the Social Security Administration, developed a measurement for poverty based on the amount spent on food. She calculated that families spend one-third of their income on food. Orshansky used 1963 as the base year, and each year the U.S. Census Bureau updates this measurement to account for inflation.
However, critics of this formula said it doesn?t consider the impact of things like housing, healthcare and transportation costs, which consume a large portion of a family?s budget.
By ignoring these factors, the whole picture of poverty isn?t being measured. For instance, people lingering near poverty, those living 200 percent or less above the poverty level, equal nearly 30 percent of the state?s population, Wilhelm said.
The working class currently living in poverty comprises the majority of Utah?s poor population, and often they face the majority of challenges continually created by an ever-changing world.
?I think it?s much more difficult now , and I think there are a number of reasons for that,? Wilhelm said. ?There is sort of a huge shift of risk factors onto employees that used to be born by employers.?
For instance, a 2004 survey by the Utah Society for Human Resource Management and the Sutherland Institute showed the rise in health-care costs has forced many Utah companies to reduce employee medical benefits and raise premiums.?
The survey compiled responses from 89 Utah businesses, government organizations and nonprofit agencies and showed nearly 25 percent of respondents said they reduced existing medical benefits last year.
This trend seemed only likely to continue as 58 percent of respondents said they would change their health insurance plans in 2005. Also, nearly one in five participants said they planned to reduce benefits this year, and 49 percent said they would increase employee contributions.
Reports like this mean bad news for Utah?s working class living in poverty. The State of Working Utah report showed the purchasing power of wages in Utah have fallen 3 percent since 1979, putting Utah wages $1.42 below the national median.
?Twenty-five years ago minimum wage was closer to being a living wage or a wage that a family could actually sustain themselves on,? said Myla Dutton, executive director of Provo?s Community Action Agency. ?In the last decade or so we have had a tripling in housing cost, but certainly not a tripling in minimum wage.?
Utah?s current minimum wage rate of $5.15 is increasingly being outpaced by the escalating costs of housing in the state. A family of four living in Utah County needs to make between $11 and $12 an hour just to be able to afford the prices of local housing, Dutton said.
?Today families are doubling up with each other on housing, and families are living pay check to pay check,? Dutton said. ?Eleven percent of our local residents are living in poverty, meaning that a family of four are earning and living on less than $20,000 a year.?
The fact that minimum wage hasn?t changed since 1997 has been cited as contributing to the overall problem of poverty. But from 1989 to 1991 Utah?s minimum wage experienced one of it?s largest increases at 90 cents. However, in that same time period poverty rose 4.7 percent, suggesting that this issue extends beyond raising the minimum wage.
Officials said Utahns should be concerned about the growing population of those living in poverty because of the short-and-long-term affects in several different areas.
?They may have to use charity care at a hospital, and if that happens the hospital has to treat them but they don?t get any money for it,? said Terry Haven, director of the Utah Kids Count project. ?So they pass that along to the people that do pay. So it raises your insurance rate and it raises the cost of your health care.?
In addition to health care, Haven said society is affected on a larger scale because children living in poverty are more likely to end up in the juvenile justice system, leaving them stymied from reaching their potential.
?There are a lot of children who never lived up to their potential, and maybe one of them would have discovered the cure for cancer,? Haven said. ?But they weren?t getting breakfast in the morning so their brain never jump started.?
However, poverty is a complex issue with many faces creating an elusive solution. But that doesn?t mean citizens can?t make a difference in bringing the problem closer to a resolution. Haven said people still have the power to enact change and shouldn?t feel their efforts are pointless because they?re just one voice.
?The biggest thing I think citizens can do is get involved in the political process,? Haven said. ?So if you call your senator, your representative and say ?I would really like to not cut welfare and food stamps from the federal budget? ? they might listen.?