The Living Wage Coalition believes a living or self-sufficiency wage
for Sonoma County in 2008 is $14.90 an hour (including benefits) and
an annual family income of $62,940 based upon calculations for a two-
parent, two-child family with both parents working full-time.Click here to view the Sonoma County calculations by the Insight Center for Community and Economic Development and Wider Opportunities for Women.
Family Economic Security Initiative
(from the Insight Center for Community and Economic Development http://www.insightcced.org/).
Transforming the Way We Address the Economic Needs of Working California Families
Working families in California and across the nation are struggling to make ends meet. Due to stagnant wages and ever-increasing costs, more and more working families are finding that their earnings no longer cover the costs of their basic needs, and our public policies do not close the gap. The Family Economic Security Initiative is a statewide, research-driven coalition that advocates for programs and policies that help close this gap, and ensure that California's working families and retired elders do not struggle to make ends meet.
A More Realistic Measure of What it Takes to Make Ends Meet: The Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Standard
A key component of the Family Economic Security Initiative is the Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Standard Family Standard), a new tool that quantifies the actual costs of meeting the basic needs of working families. The Family Standard measures how much income is needed for families of 156 compositions, living in a particular county, to meet their basic needs. The Family Standard methodology was developed by Dr. Diana Pearce of the University of Washington. It uses widely accepted and credible national and state data sources such as the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Geographically relevant data is used for each county in California, reflecting local market rates for items such as housing, food, child care, health care, and transportation.
A More Accurate Alternative to the Federal Poverty Level
The Family Standard is based on the costs individuals and families face on a daily basis - housing, food, child care, out-of-pocket medical expenses, transportation, and other necessary spending - and provides a complete picture of what it takes for families to make ends meet. The Family Standard shows that many Californians who are not poor, as defined by the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), still do not have enough income to meet their basic needs.
How the Family Standard is Used
The Family Standard is used by a wide range of people to help ensure that working California families have the resources they need to live with dignity and economic well-being. For direct service providers, the Family Standard Index is a much-needed tool that helps providers accurately evaluate the needs of their clients and helps them secure additional funding to increase their service capacity. Advocates use the Family Standard to strengthen their efforts to promote more effective public policy. Policymakers use the Family Standard to more accurately evaluate policy decisions on family economic security issues - ultimately improving the efficiency of existing services by measuring which programs and policies are most effective in helping families reach economic security, and directing limited funds to the appropriate programs. And finally, equipped with realistic data on the income needed to make ends meet in California, students can make informed decisions about what kinds of jobs they will need to support a family and workers can identify training opportunities which lead to self-sufficiency wages.
A Coalition for Change
The Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Initiative is guided by a statewide steering committee comprised of policy makers, public agencies, nonprofit service organizations, advocacy groups, and foundations. California's initiative is part of the national Family Economic Self-Sufficiency (FESS) Program, led by the Washington, D.C.-based Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) and in partnership with 35 other states, including the District of Columbia. Ultimately, our goal is to transform the way we measure and address the economic needs of working families throughout the entire country. Get Involved. For more information on FESI and the Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Standard, contact Jenny Chung at jchung@insightcced.org.
To view the California Family Economic Standards for each county in California click here:
http://www.insightcced.org/index.php?page=ca-sss
The
Self-Sufficiency Standard
(from
the Wider Opportunities for Women website http://www.wowonline.org)
This section contains information about the Self-Sufficiency Standard created by Wider Opportunities for Women and Dr. Diana Pearce, founder of the Women and Poverty Project at WOW, and a professor at the University of Washington, School of Social Work. In addition, you may download and print copy of the Self-Sufficiency Standard for any of the states that have Self-Sufficiency Standards.
The Self-Sufficiency Standard calculates how much money working adults need to meet their basic needs without subsidies of any kind. Unlike the federal poverty standard, the Self-Sufficiency Standard accounts for the costs of living and working as they vary by family size and composition and by geographic location.
The Standard defines the amount of income necessary to meet basic needs(including paying taxes) in the regular "marketplace" without public subsidies-such as public housing, food stamps, Medicaid or child care-or private/informal subsidies-such as free babysitting by a relative or friend, food provided by churches or local food banks, or shared housing.The Standard, therefore, estimates the level of income necessary for given family type-whether working now or making the transition to work-to be independent of welfare and/or other public and private subsidies.
The Standard provides important guidance for policymakers and program providers regarding how to target their education, job training, workforce development, and welfare-to-work resources. It helps individuals choose among occupations for work experience and educational training. It also shows policymakers how subsidizing child care, transportation or healthcare impacts the wages necessary for working families to make ends meet.
* The Standard assumes that all adults (whether married or single) work full-time and includes the costs associated with employment-specifically,transportation and taxes, and for families with young children, child care.* The Standard takes into account that many costs differ not only by family size and composition (as does the official poverty measure), but also by the age of children. While food and health care costs are slightly lower for younger children, child care costs are much higher-particularly for children not yet in school-and are a substantial budget item not included in the official poverty measure.* The Standard accounts for regional variations in cost. This feature is particularly important for housing. Housing in the most expensive areas of the country costs four times as much as in the least expensive areas for equivalent size units.* The Standard includes the net effect of taxes and tax credits. It provides for state sales taxes, as well as payroll (Social Security) taxes,and federal and state income taxes. Two credits available to working adults, the Child Care Tax Credit (CCTC) and the Earned Income Tax Credit(EITC) are "credited" against the income needed to meet basic needs-thus reducing the income needed to become economically self-sufficient.
* The Standard accounts for the fact that, over time, various costs increase at different rates. For example, food costs, on which the official poverty thresholds are based, have not increased as fast as housing costs.This failure to account for differential inflation rates among other non-food basic needs is one reason that the official poverty thresholds are no longer an adequate measure of the money required to meet real needs.
Self-Sufficiency Standards for the North Bay
The Report by New Economy, Working Solutions (NEWS), "The Limits of Prosperity: Growth, Inequality and Poverty in the North Bay (2005) presents an explanation of self-sufficiency standards for each county in the North Bay based upon WOW estimates. In particular, see pp. 43-55 of the report.
CLICK HERE FOR "THE LIMITS OF PROSPERITY"
(Please note that the chart on Self-Sufficiency standards updates the chart in the "Limits of Prosperity.")
A conservative estimate for a self-sufficiency or living wage is based upon a two-parent, two child (one infant and one preschooler) family. It is assumed that both parents work full-time. For Sonoma County a self-sufficiency wage is $13.25 an hour, for Marin County $16.47 an hour,for Napa County, $14.50 an hour, and for Mendocino County $9.78 an hour.
The WOW self-sufficiency calculations do not include the 'extras' many would consider necessities today such as dental coverage, life insurance,and savings for retirement and education. Moreover, the WOW standards are based upon 2003 costs for rental housing, transportation, child care,health care, food, and miscellaneous costs for clothing, phone, and renters insurance in each respective county.
LIVING WAGE COALITION OF SONOMA COUNTY