"The Guardian UK" - How bad is poverty in Rick Perry's Texas?
September 22, 2011 The Guardian UK, September 18, 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/sep/15/texas-poverty-perry-wages-cppp/print
Texas governor Rick Perry is running for the Republican nomination on his economic record. But what is the state's record on poverty?
What is happening in Texas? According to a new report by the non-partisan Center for Public Policy Priorities , economic prosperity is passing millions of ordinary Texans by.
The reports authors write that:
Believing in the American Dream is as much a part of being a Texan as remembering the Alamo. Texans believe that by working hard, we will earn decent wages and make a good life for our families. Poverty, on the other hand, is a nightmare. New data … shows many more Texans living that nightmare
The research is based on new data from the US census bureau's Current Population Survey - which has just released figures on poverty, income and health insurance across the entire country.
The figures highlighted by the CPPP report show that unemployment in Texas has doubled, and poverty rates are shooting up, in comparison to the rest of the US. The report comes as Republican front runner Rick Perry emphasises his economic record as State governor.
As Paul Harris writes, Perry claims that 40% of all new US jobs have been created in Texas. The candidate says:
They're coming to Texas because they know there's still a land of freedom in America, freedom from over-taxation, freedom from over-litigation and freedom from over-regulation, and its called Texas. We need to do the same thing for America
So, how are things in Texas?
Poverty is higher in Texas than the US
Roll over chart for data. Download this data
Poverty in the US is defined as a household income of $22,113 a year for a family of four. The proportion of Texans living below that figure has shot up, especially compared to the US as a whole. There are currently around 4.6m Texans living in poverty.
Unemployment is lower than the US average
The CPPP admits that Texas has had a high rate of job creation, compared to the US average - but, says the report:
Of the nearly 1 million unemployed Texans in 2010, more than one in three—approximately 336,000 Texans—were unemployed 6 months or longer. In fact, the 2010 unemployment and poverty rates are at 15-year highs. The unemployment rate has continued to climb into 2011 to 8.4 percent (July 2011), marking 23 consecutive months that Texas' unemployment rate has exceeded 8%. This ties the modern-day stretch set in the wake of the 1980s oil and real estate bust
A lot of Texans live on or below the minimum wage
Roll over chart for data. Download this data
The median income for workers in Texas is $47,464 - just below the US average of $49,445. But for those in jobs paid by the hour, the state has a high proportion paid at or below the legal minimum.
Figures from the Bureau of Labour Statistics show that half a million Texans earn at or below the typical national minimum wage of $7.25 per hour - that's around one in ten of all hourly-paid workers in the state. And that proportion is higher than the US average.
And it has got worse over time - especially for women hourly-paid workers.
Roll over chart for data. Download this data
Millions of Texans cannot afford healthcare or food
Roll over chart for data. Download this data
Texas has the worst figure in the entire country: over six million people, a quarter of the population, are uninsured. That figure of 24.6% compares to the national average of 16.2%.
But it's broader than health insurance. The report says this leaves many Texans dependent on state handouts
At the current minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, a single parent working full time would earn just over $15,000 a year before taxes. If that parent has two kids, then $15,000 would be too low to meet basic needs, leaving them dependent upon public health insurance and free school lunch for the kids and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as Food Stamps) for the entire family
In fact, new data from the US Department of agriculture shows that almost one in five Texas households (18.8%, or 1.7 million households) were food insecure between 2008 and 2010, compared to 14.6% of households nationwide.
Is poverty getting worse across the US?
Click image for US poverty interactive map
Yes. The Census Bureau has just released its latest figures which show 2.6 million people fell into poverty last year in the US. Some 46.2 million Americans are now living in poverty, the highest recorded figure ever.
