The Oklahoma SelfSufficiency Standard: Generic Presentation

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The Oklahoma Self-Sufficiency StandardGeneric
Presentation
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Outline of Presentation

• Background to the Project What is the Standard?
• Overview and Findings of Oklahoma Report
• Next Steps

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Released February 26, 2002 A partnership between

• Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW), Washington
  D.C.- National coordinator of Self-Sufficiency
  Project
• Dr. Diana Pearce, University of Washington lead
  researcher and author
• Community Action Project of Tulsa County (CAP)
  Lead State Organization
• Statewide Advisory Committee of Advocacy
  Organizations, Public Agencies, and Individuals

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Who else has Produced a Report?
Oklahoma was the 21st State in the Nation to
publish the Standard.

• New Jersey
• Connecticut
• South Dakota
• Wisconsin
• Colorado
• Washington
• Utah
• Kentucky
• Maryland
• Montana
• 35 states by end of 2002

• Other States include
• Iowa
• California
• Washington DC
• Texas
• North Carolina
• Pennsylvania
• Illinois
• Massachusetts
• Indiana
• New York

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What is the Standard?

• The Standard defines the income working families
  need to meet their basic necessities without
  public or private assistance

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What is the Standard?
The Standard

• Based on the costs of basic needs of a working
  family.
• Includes seven basic categories of expenditures
• Housing, Food, Child Care, Transportation, Health
  Care, Taxes, Miscellaneous
• Assumes
• All adults work full-time, with corresponding
  work-related expenses (child care, separate car)
• Employer provides employee and dependents health
  insurance
• No family members with special needs
• No-frills budget (doesnt allow for meals out,
  entertainment, vacations)
• No one-time purchases (e.g. furniture,
  appliances, car)
• No savings or loan payments

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What is the Standard?

• 7 Basic Categories of Expenditures
• Housing 2002 Fair Market Rents set by the
  Department of Housing and Urban
  Development, including utilities
• Food USDA Low-Cost Food Plan
• Child Care Based on Oklahomas 2001 Child Care
  Market Rate Survey, 75th percentile
• Transportation Costs of owning and operating an
  average car
• Health Care Average employee premiums and
  out-of-pocket costs for employer-sponsored
  insurance
• Miscellaneous 10 of all other costs. Includes
  clothing, paper products, non-prescription drugs,
  household items, telephone, etc.
• Taxes Federal income and payroll taxes, state
  and local sales taxes minus low-income tax
  credits

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What is the Standard?

• The Standard Represents a Significant Improvement
  Over the Federal Poverty Level

• Based on real costs
• Distinguishes by location
• Recognizes different cost of living between and
  within states.
• Specific to each of Oklahomas 77 counties
• Distinguishes by family size and type
• 70 different family types
• Recognizes that infants, pre-schoolers,
  school-age children incur different expenses

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Overview Findings

• For most Oklahoma families, self-
• sufficiency income greatly exceeds other
  common benchmarks of income.
• 1-Parent, 2-Child (Preschooler, School-age)
  Family, Tulsa County

• Federal Poverty Line 15,020
• 7.25/hr approximate
• Full-Time Minimum Wage 14,098
• 5.15/hr plus tax credits
• Median Family Income 42,200

• SELF-SUFFICIENCY WAGE 33,234
• 15.74/hr

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The Self-Sufficiency Standard Compared to Other
Income BenchmarksFamily with one parent, one
preschooler, one school-age child, in Cleveland
County, Oklahoma
Note Full-time minimum wage is the 2002
minimum wage of 5.15/hr, and includes the net
effect of the addition of the Earned Income Tax
Credit and the subtraction of taxes
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Overview Findings

• Higher standards are typical of counties in large
  metro areas (OKC Tulsa)
• Due primarily to higher costs for housing and
  child care.
• Housing and child care costs are the major
  expenses for families with children.
• The proportions spent on these items are
  consistent across the state.
• Generally, for two children families, child care
  costs exceed housing costs.
• Other expense categories run about even.

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Percentage of Income Needed to Meet Basic Needs
Based on the Self-Sufficiency Standard for a
One-Parent Family with One Preschool and One
School-Age Child in Sequoyah County
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Overview Findings

• Public and private work supports play a vital
  role in narrowing the gap between actual income
  and self-sufficiency.
• Public supports allow many families to satisfy
  basic needs on limited incomes. They include
• Section 8 Rental Assistance
• Child Care Subsidies
• Food Stamps
• Public Health Insurance (SoonerCare, Medicare)
• However, most public programs have restricted
  eligibility and do not reach all who are
  eligible.
• Increased earnings may mean a loss of subsidies.

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Impact of Work Supports on Monthly Costs and the
Self-Sufficiency Wage
Single parent with one infant and one
pre-schooler, Rogers County, 2002
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Overview and Findings

• The Standard
• Exposes the fact that many families lack a
  self-sufficiency income level.
• Its not about bad budgeting
• For families below the Standard, closing the gap
  may mean
• Getting help meeting basic needs with public or
  private subsidies, and/ or
• Using less desirable child care, and/ or
• Doubling-up or living in substandard housing,
  and/ or
• Obtaining free food or doing without, and/ or
• Not obtaining needed medical care, and/ or
• Foregoing any savings, and/ or going into debt
• In extreme (but not so rare) cases, not getting
  by leads to violence or family break-ups

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Uses of the Standard

• The Standard speaks to a variety of stakeholders
• Employers have a role in paying decent wages and
  providing benefits, such as health insurance and
  transportation assistance to their workers.
• Government has a role in ensuring that job
  training and education, as well as work supports
  like child care, are affordable and accessible to
  families and in promoting the creation of quality
  jobs.
• The education and training systems have a role in
  preparing, informing and guiding current and
  future workers.
• Individuals are responsible for taking advantage
  of opportunities to invest in themselves and
  their potential.

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Next StepsOutreach, Education and Action

• The Oklahoma Self-Sufficiency Coalition has the
  objectives
• To inform Oklahomans about the Oklahoma
  Self-Sufficiency Standard and the challenges that
  families face in becoming economically
  self-sufficient
• Reach interested sectors including (but not
  limited to) educators, policy-makers, employers,
  localities, social service providers, minority
  communities, religious groups.
• 2. To serve as an ongoing forum to share
  information and ideas on issues of concern to
  low-income families

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Next StepsOutreach, Education and Action

• 3. To encourage and assist initiatives aimed at
  increasing economic self-sufficiency
• Some ideas include
• Incorporating the Standard into performance
  measurement standards of the workforce
  development system
• Developing a web-based self-sufficiency
  calculator to assist with career development and
  family budgeting
• Maintaining and expanding public subsidies for
  working families
• Raising wages and improving benefits
• Other Ideas???

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Next StepsOutreach, Education and Action

• Please complete if you are wish to get involved
  in the Self-Sufficiency Coalition
• Name
• Organization
• Title
• Telephone
• Address
• City, State, Zip
• E-mail
• I want to join the Coalition e-mail group ____
  Yes ____ No
• I am interested in the following issues (please
  circle)
• Health Care Food Security
  Welfare Housing Child
  Care
• Wages and Income Asset Development
  Other ______________________
• Detach and send to David Blatt, CAPTC, 717 S.
  Houston, Suite 200, Tulsa 74127

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Next StepsOutreach, Education and Action

• Please visit our website at www.sixstrategies.org
  /states/states.cfm
• to download a copy of the Standard, to learn
  more about the Self-Sufficiency Standard in
  Oklahoma and other states, or join our e-mail
  group
• Or contact David Blatt, Director of Public Policy
  at the Community Action Project
• [phone] dblatt_at_captc.org