A higher minimum wage in 2017, By Karl Russell, January 5, 2017, New York Times: “With the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour unchanged since 2009, many states have taken matters into their own hands and raised the statewide minimum wage. While a higher floor for pay is a powerful tool for improving the lot of the least-skilled workers, some economists worry it could result in slower job creation or cuts as employers confront higher labor costs…”
Tag: Income
Social Security and Student Loan Debt
The disturbing trend of people losing Social Security benefits to student debt, By Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, December 20, 2016, Washington Post: “To recoup student-loan debt, the government is leaving people who rely on Social Security with benefits that fall below federal poverty guidelines, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday. The number of older Americans defaulting on education loans has steadily increased in recent decades, as many have returned to college or co-signed loans for family members. Unpaid debt has resulted in the government garnishing the benefits of 114,000 people age 50 and older in the past year, more than half of whom were receiving Social Security disability rather than retirement income, the GAO report said…”
American Community Survey
- Poverty grows in swaths of suburbs, By Christine MacDonald and Mike Martindale, December 8, 2016, Detroit News: “Poverty is growing and incomes are down in pockets of suburban Metro Detroit, according to U.S. Census data released Thursday, but in most of the area’s small cities those numbers have remained stagnant. Nearly a quarter of Metro Detroit’s smaller communities saw median household income decline and 20 percent saw the poverty rate grow, according to an analysis of census data by The Detroit News. The remaining communities saw no gains or losses and only a handful saw improvements, when comparing two five-year periods, 2006-10 and 2011-15…”
- Census: Economic data paints two different portraits of Utah, By Daphne Chen, December 7, 2016, Deseret News: “In the remote red mesas of this southeastern corner of Utah, Charlie DeLorme counts the jobs by the single digits. There’s the Latigo wind farm that started operations last March, creating six new full-time positions. There’s the Desert Rose Inn in Bluff, which added 10 jobs after a luxury expansion…”
- Census Bureau surveys highlight growing differences between rural, urban living, By Alan Johnson, December 9, 2016, Columbus Dispatch: “If you live in rural Ohio, you’re more likely than city dwellers to own your home, be a military veteran and be married, the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau shows. On the other hand, urban residents’ homes are worth more, and they are more likely to have a college degree and internet access. Rural residents, on average, are slightly older and less likely to be in poverty…”