02-20-2015, 08:32 AM
kalakoa:
"A full-time minimum-wage job used to be enough to raise 3 kids. Today it's below the poverty line."
That statement really struck me as interesting, so I googled around. It appears the actual numbers are a bit different than how it ends up being repeated in various media outlets. Questions come to mind: What was happening to actual families before the minimum wage was instituted during the Great Depression? How did the later "war on poverty" actually impact it? How do minimum wage families fare when including changing government poverty benefits over time? How has the definition of the poverty line changed over time? And bringing it back to Hawaii--Is the Hawaii poverty line correctly adjusted above the mainland (presently at something like 12%)?
The story appears to have started at the website sharing this chart...
http://www.civilrights.org/publications/...forweb.jpg
...which certainly has their slant on the matter. But what about the previous years cut off on the left of the chart? Clearly 1968 was cherry-picked, but I wonder....
Cheers,
Kirt
"A full-time minimum-wage job used to be enough to raise 3 kids. Today it's below the poverty line."
That statement really struck me as interesting, so I googled around. It appears the actual numbers are a bit different than how it ends up being repeated in various media outlets. Questions come to mind: What was happening to actual families before the minimum wage was instituted during the Great Depression? How did the later "war on poverty" actually impact it? How do minimum wage families fare when including changing government poverty benefits over time? How has the definition of the poverty line changed over time? And bringing it back to Hawaii--Is the Hawaii poverty line correctly adjusted above the mainland (presently at something like 12%)?
The story appears to have started at the website sharing this chart...
http://www.civilrights.org/publications/...forweb.jpg
...which certainly has their slant on the matter. But what about the previous years cut off on the left of the chart? Clearly 1968 was cherry-picked, but I wonder....
Cheers,
Kirt