Growing number of Iowans work hard and stay poor [View All]

[Rose Siding]

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The working poor earn more than those in poverty but they're often one crisis --- an unexpected illness, or a car that won't start --- away from slipping below the line.

They're typically white, between 19 and 64 years old, often single women. They live in urban areas, but they're also spread across rural Iowa. Many who fall into this category have a high level of education.

They earn more than the federal poverty guideline -- $19,350 for a family of four. That's $9.30 an hour, or $4.15 above the federal minimum wage. Simply put, they make too much money to get help from programs that assist poor people with food, home heating bills and children's nutrition. Without that aid, their costs are greater than those who live in poverty.
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Wages of low-income workers have remained stagnant or declined, eroding purchasing power. At the same time, the cost of groceries, consumer goods, gasoline and health care skyrocketed. So has the cost of rent and homeownership, which in Waterloo has more than doubled in five years.
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Earnings for the poorest Iowans increased only 3 percent in the past 20 years, while salaries for the richest Iowans increased 43 percent --- resulting in a $115,000 gap. Officials estimate the divide is the widest it has been in two decades. The minimum wage would be more than $65 an hour if it kept pace with the salaries of top corporate executives, according to Tamara Sober Giecek, author of "Teaching Economics as if People Mattered."

http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2005/04/03/news/metro/b66f53d0ac2787b386256fd80003b2d2.txt