Reality
keeps rearing its ugly
head. The Bush
administration's case
for the war in Iraq has
completely fallen apart,
as evidenced by the
report this week from
the president's
handpicked inspector
that Iraq had destroyed
its illicit weapons
stockpiles in the early
1990's.
Coming
next week are the
results of a new study
that shows - here at
home - how tough a time
American families are
having in their
never-ending struggle to
put food on the table
and keep a roof over
their heads. The White
House, as deep in denial
about the economy as it
is about Iraq, insists
that things are fine -
despite the embarrassing
fact that
President Bush is on
track to become the
first president since
Herbert Hoover to
preside over a net loss
of jobs during his four
years in office.
The
study, jointly sponsored
by the Annie E. Casey,
Ford and Rockefeller
Foundations, will show
that 9.2 million working
families in the United
States - one out of
every four - earn wages
that are so low they are
barely able to survive
financially.
"Our
data is very solid and
shows that this is a
much bigger problem than
most people
imagine," said
Brandon Roberts, one of
the authors of the
report, which is to be
formally released on
Tuesday. The report
found that there are 20
million children in
these low-income working
families.
For
the purposes of the
study, any family in
which at least one
person was employed was
considered a working
family. Very wealthy
families were included.
The
median income for a
family of four in the
U.S. is $62,732.
According to the study,
a family of four earning
less than $36,784 is
considered low-income. A
family of four earning
less than $18,392 is
considered poor. The 9.2
million struggling
families cited by the
report fell into one of
the latter two
categories. And those
families have one-third
of all the children in
American working
families.
Not
surprisingly, the
problem for millions of
families is that they
have jobs that pay very
low wages and provide no
benefits. "Consider
the motel housekeeper,
the retail clerk at the
hardware store or the
coffee shop cook,"
the report said.
"If they have
children, chances are
good that their families
are living on an income
too low to provide for
their basic needs."
Neither
politicians nor the
media put much of a
spotlight on families
that are struggling
economically. According
to the study, one in
five workers are in
occupations where the
median wage is less than
$8.84 an hour, which is
a poverty-level wage for
a family of four. A
full-time job at the
federal minimum wage of
$5.15 an hour is not
even sufficient to keep
a family of three out of
poverty.
Families
with that kind of income
are teetering on the
edge of an economic
abyss. Any misfortune
might push them over the
edge - an illness, an
automobile breakdown,
even something as
seemingly minor as a
flooded basement.
For
the families in these
lower-income brackets,
life is often a
harrowing day-to-day
struggle to pay for the
bare necessities.
According to federal
government statistics,
the median annual rent
for a two-bedroom
apartment in major
metropolitan markets is
more than $8,000. The
annual cost of food for
a low-income family of
four is nearly $4,000.
Utility bills are nearly
$2,000. Transportation
costs are about $1,500.
And then there are costs
for child care, health
care and clothing.
You do
the math. How are these
millions of poor and
low-income families
making it?
(A lot
of those families are
going to get a shock
this winter as price
increases for crude oil
get translated into big
jumps in home heating
bills.)
The
economy relies heavily
on the services provided
by low-wage workers but,
as the report notes,
"our society has
not taken adequate steps
to ensure that these
workers can make ends
meet and build a future
for their families, no
matter how determined
they are to be
self-sufficient."
Mr.
Roberts said he hoped
the study, titled
"Working Hard,
Falling Short,"
would help initiate a
national discussion of
the plight of families
who are doing the right
thing but not earning
enough to get ahead.
"Seventy-one
percent of low-income
families work," he
said. More than half are
headed by married
couples. But economic
self-sufficiency remains
maddeningly out of
reach.
Even
in a presidential
election year, these
matters have not been
explored in any
sustained way. We're
quick to give lip
service to the need to
work hard, but very slow
to properly reward hard
work.
E-mail: bobherb@nytimes.com