Poverty in America: the struggles of working poor and what teens are doing to help.

Janet Rader faces tough choices. With barely enough money to cover her bills and the rent on the small apartment she shares with her sister, she sometimes can't afford to buy food. Other times she goes without the prescription drugs she takes for high blood pressure.

For Rader (not her real name), life is a constant struggle, even though she holds a full-time job as a food-service worker in a hospital.

"I have a good job, but I have to choose between paying the electric bill or getting food," she said recently. Rader was picking up a basket of free food at a community kitchen in her Brooklyn, New York, neighborhood.

There are more and more people like Rader in the United States. Food servers. Grocery clerks. Security guards. These kinds of jobs once supported a family with good wages and benefits. Today, such jobs are more likely to lead to poverty.

A Growing Problem

The number of the working poor is growing as families see their wages frozen or cut and their health-care benefits eliminated. At the same time, millions of high-paying jobs have been moved overseas. Workers who once earned $25 an hour assembling cars now may have to take jobs in restaurants at the national minimum wage of $5.15 an hour.

Ed Fowler is director of Neighbors Together, the community kitchen that serves Rader's area. "We're serving people we never used to see in a food pantry," he told JS. "These are people who are working, who are educated, and who want to better themselves. But they are barely surviving, and many are being pulled over the edge."

Today, 28 million Americans make less than $8.70 an hour, the official U.S. poverty level for a family of four. (Most experts estimate that it takes at least double that amount for a family to meet its basic needs.) The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington, D.C., research institute, reported recently that the number of people living in poverty has risen for four straight years. In 2004, 37 million people lived in poverty. That means that one in eight Americans--12.7 percent--was poor last year.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 38.2 million Americans were "food insecure," or facing hunger and inadequate food supplies, in 2004. That figure had jumped from 31.9 million in 1999.

Families with children struggled even more. In all, 13.9 million children (19 percent of all U.S. kids) went hungry in 2004.

Poverty-Level Jobs

What is happening in the U.S., one of the world's richest countries, where so many working families seem to be struggling? First, economists say, the value of workers' wages has not kept up with inflation. This is especially true for workers who earn the minimum wage. The value of today's minimum wage is 24 percent lower than the minimum wage in 1979, according to Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. "Many jobs that a decade ago offered a living wage are now poverty-level jobs," he says.

Another reason is global competition. (See "Globalization and You," JS 10/31/05.) Foreign companies often pay lower wages and charge less for their products than American ones. That causes American companies to cut workers' wages in order to lower expenses. Increased immigration to the U.S. also means that more workers are competing for jobs. This, too, has led to lower wages.

Teens Help Out

Some economists argue that the picture of poverty is not so gloomy. "Most of America's 'poor' live in conditions that would have been judged as comfortable or well-off just a few generations ago," says Robert Rector of the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. "The typical American defined as poor has a car, air-conditioning, a TV, a stove, and a home. While their life is not opulent, it is not desperate either."

Food-pantry and soup-kitchen workers see a different picture. They tell of an explosion in demand for food. To meet the need, many aid organizations are calling on Americans to volunteer.

Young people have answered the call. According to a recent study, 15- to 25-year-olds volunteer at a higher rate than any other group. Forty percent of all young people say that they have volunteered during the past year.

At Friends Seminary, a private school in New York City, many students, including Emma Weinstein, 15, have made volunteer work part of their daily lives. Last Christmas, the ninth-grader and her grandmother volunteered at a soup kitchen in Memphis, Tennessee. After three days of carving and serving turkey and washing dishes, Emma was so inspired that she now volunteers at a soup kitchen back home.

"I saw all sorts of people in the kitchen, people you wouldn't even think were poor," she told JS. "Some were wearing suits. But they couldn't pay their medical bills. It was sad."

Emma says that teens can make a difference: "If one person says, 'I can do something, I can change things,' and then another says the same thing, and those two people talk to their friends, before you know it you will have a huge group of people working to make the world better."

Words to Know

* inflation: a general, ongoing increase in prices.

* opulent: exhibiting great wealth.

Your Turn

THINK ABOUT IT

1. Why are so many families in the U.S. struggling to meet their basic needs?

2. What more should the government do to help people living in poverty? What can you do?

Parental Employment in Low-Income Families

Unemployed                     5%
Part-time                      7%
Full-time, part year          15%
Full-time, year round         73%

Note: Job status of low-income married parents,
2003. source: National Center for Children in Poverty
(Sept.2005 report)

Note: Table made from pie chart.

USA Poverty in America, pp. 8-9

* OBJECTIVE

Students should understand

* that many hard-working Americans still face economic distress.

* BACKGROUND

The federal minimum wage has been $5.15 an hour since 1997. In 1979, it was only $2.90, but inflation since then means that it could buy considerably more than today's minimum wage. The $2.90 of 1979 was worth $7.21 in current dollars--well above today's $5.15. Some states have chosen to set their minimum wages above the federal level. For instance, as of January 1, 2006, Hawaii's and New York State's increased to $6.75 an hour, while Connecticut's went to $7.40 an hour.

* CRITICAL THINKING

MAKING INFERENCES: What sort of people did Emma Weinstein encounter in her volunteer work with the poor? What does that tell you about them? ("all sorts of people," including some "wearing suits"; they probably had jobs but earned enough to pay bills or buy food, but not both)

FORMING AND SUPPORTING AN OPINION: Should the federal minimum wage be increased? Explain. (Answers will vary.)

* ACTIVITY

SLICES OF THE PIE: Have students study and discuss the pie graph on p. 9. Are they surprised at the percentage of parents whose families remain low-income despite their working full-time, year-round? Why or why not? What measures would they suggest for improving the lot of America's poor? Is help for the poor the responsibility of the federal government, local governments, charities, individuals, or some combination thereof?.

STANDARDS

SOCIAL STUDIES, GRADES 5-8

* Production, distribution, and consumption: How some Americans, working full-time at one or more jobs, still live at or below the poverty line.

* Civic ideals and practices: Why and how many young people are volunteering to help impoverished Americans.

RESOURCES

PRINT

* Erlbach, Arlene, The Kids' Volunteering Book (Lerner Publications, 1998). Grades 5-7.

* Kowalski, Kathiann M, Poverty in America: Causes and Issues (Enslow Publishers, 2003). Grades 6-12.

WEB SITES

* Trapped by Poverty: Jessie's Story un.org/works/goingon/poverty/jessica_story.htmi

* What Kids Can Do whatkidscando.org/WhatsLearned/BuralChildPoverty.html