NCCP Fairness Initiative on Low-Wage Work addresses difficult choices low-wage families make
From: Phil Sparks, co-director The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) has released a new report, “Budgeting for Basic Needs: A Struggle for Working Families,” at www.nccp.org/publications/pub_858.html. The report addresses the inadequacy of low wages paid to a quarter of America’s workforce and the difficult choices low-wage families make. The Fairness Initiative on Low-Wage Work is offering a 5-minute podcast with the report’s author, Kinsey Alden Dinan of NCCP. The podcast is available online at www.lowwagework.org/podcasts.htm. Dinan can be reached at (646) 284-9638 or dinan@nccp.org. “Budgeting for Basic Needs” finds that for many families, the American dream of getting ahead through hard work is far out of reach. Even at two and three times the federal minimum wage ($6.55 an hour), full-time working parents are routinely unable even to pay for basic necessities. The report calls for improved policies to increase access to high quality jobs with adequate wages and benefits and ensure a comprehensive work support system that realistically addresses families’ needs. NCCP is a New York City-based research institution which is part of Columbia
University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
