February 7 , 2007

More on Living Wage

There has been a lot of news coverage of legislation being considered in Congress concerning an increase in the minimum wage. In the midst of this conversation another term gets bandied about as well – living wage.

What is the difference? Basically, the minimum wage is essentially that, the least that an employer can pay an employee on a per-hour basis.

A living wage is described as that level of income that will support an individual or family, providing for the acquisition of basic needs. Essential to understanding this is to realize that the minimum wage simply is not adequate to do this.

The living wage is also determined geographically. Taking this into consideration means that a living wage in urban centers like Birmingham will be higher than that in rural areas like Sumter County.

Living wage legislation has taken hold primarily with city governments, requiring such wages of those who have contracts with those cities. The city of Birmingham has just such a proposal being studied by the city’s legal department. The Birmingham News reported on this last Sunday.

The article does a good job of outlining the issues and facts about living wage. Here’s one online site that gives the basics.

Red States, Blue States and Children’s Health

A recently published study indicates that children in so-called red states don’t do as well as those in blue states when it comes to health and health policies. The study, published in the book Homeland Insecurity … American Children at Risk, indicates that children living in red states are more likely to lack health insurance, live in poverty and die early.

Alabama, one of those red states, is listed as being in the bottom ten states in this regard.

The study concludes that red states tend to have a greater degree of anti-government, anti-taxation sentiment. This results in fewer resources for intervention, especially with children from low-wealth families.

Follow this link for an article about the findings and this one to visit the website of Every Child Matters, the organization that published the book.

Welcome to the University of Montevallo!

I’m very pleased to announce that the University of Montevallo is the latest to join APP’s Higher Education Coalition. The school’s president, Dr. Philip Williams, told us that making this decision was a “no-brainer.” I agree! We look forward to working with UM and all our other partners in raising awareness and enhancing course offerings about poverty on our Alabama campuses.

One More Word of Welcome

I’m also pleased to announce that Adam Glendye is working with APP this semester as a research intern. Adam is a senior at Samford and is excited about getting to work, crunching data and searching out information about poverty-specific issues. Welcome, Adam!

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