Argus Online
November 21, 2000
By Steve Geissinger
SACRAMENTO BUREAU
If Gov. Gray Davis and the Legislature, awash in multibillion-dollar
budget surpluses, don't believe the new study, the organizations said, ask
Leilani Luia of Alameda County, a 32-year-old single mother of two girls,
and others like her.
Working in one of the many jobs that "lower self-esteem and
confidence," Luia said she earned $10 an hour as a nurse's aide. That left
her family "really struggling," she said, even before she wound up on
welfare.
"It doesn't show (the children) that work is good, it just shows that
work is something that you do," Luia said at a Capitol news conference.
The new study states she needs to earn more than twice what she was making to meet basic needs, she said.
Advocates say that should be a wake-up call to government officials
trying to transform welfare recipients into self-sufficient workers as
part of reform efforts. Federal and state governments, in particular, need
to help train and educate recipients rather than forcing them into
low-paying jobs.
The report on hourly-wage standards in order to meet basic needs,
released by Californians for Family Economic Self-Sufficiency, a coalition
of groups representing women and the poor, showed that five of the seven
most expensive counties were in the Bay Area.
An adult with two children -- one in preschool and the other in public
school -- needs to earn $25.55 hourly in the most expensive county, Santa
Clara, to be self-sufficient.
San Francisco was second at $24.64 an hour; San Mateo, third, at
$24.25; Santa Cruz, fourth, at $21.75; Contra Costa, sixth, at $20.63; and
Alameda, seventh, at $20.57.
Ranking fifth, but outside the Bay Area, was Santa Barbara, at $20.70.
The wage requirements are three to nearly four times a major benchmark
used by the federal government in determining assistance needs.
In California, according to the federal-poverty guide, an adult
anywhere in the state with two children making more than $6.70 hourly
would be above the poverty level.
U.S. Labor Department officials acknowledged that, unlike the federal
poverty level, the self-sufficiency standards take into consideration the
varying costs of such factors as housing, child care, food and
transportation.
"What the (self-sufficiency) standards tell us is that lower wage jobs,
even though well above the minimum wage or the official poverty level,
simply do not provide enough for meeting a family's needs, even at a
minimally adequate level," said Diana Pearce, a lead author of the report.
"It's because of high costs, such as housing and child care, for
example, that single parents need higher wage jobs, not because of bad
budgeting or bad choices," she said.
The coalition, which says its scientific study is based on government
and credible private sources, measures how much parents must earn to pay
for basic necessities, without government assistance or help from others.
"These are bare-bones budgets," Pearce said. "For example, the food
budget has no take-out food, not even a pizza."
The coalition called on Davis to use the report as a guide for new
investments in low-income families, such as further education initiatives,
minimum wage increases and additional assistance with housing and child
care.
The news conference came as the Davis administration is preparing a
suggested 2001-02 state budget. But the governor's office said details of
that proposal won't be unveiled until January.
Luia, who lives in San Leandro, is working toward the education she
hopes will get her the kind of job that pays at least the $20.57 hourly
she needs to be self-sufficient with her two girls in Alameda County.
After losing her job as a nurse's aide, because of a conflict between
her job hours and children's child care availability, she went on welfare
and was allowed to study to be a social worker, first at Merritt College
in Oakland, and now at California State University, Hayward.
"I am one of the lucky ones," she said.