Income Inequality and the Plight of the Middle Class
Income inequality continues to be one of the greatest issues facing the middle class in the U.S. The income of a typical working-age family started falling in 2007 and continued to decrease through 2010. Capital income has grown substantially for the top one percent and since 1979, the top five percent has taken home half of total income growth. Taxes have fallen at the top and the minimum wage has fallen at the bottom, further expanding the income gap. To read more, click here.
How Does Asset Building Impact Foster Care Youth?
A recent study from the Jim Casey Foundation examines the financial lives of young people transitioning from foster care into adulthood. While participating in the study, youth also took part in Opportunity Passport, a Jim Casey initiative that provided financial training and services to the participants. The results show that transitioning foster youth often face many barriers to saving and general financial management but programs like Opportunity Passport can be a helpful resource to combat many of these problems. To read more, click here.
Missing Opportunities for Young Adults
A new KIDS COUNT report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation explains that young adult employment today is at its lowest level since World War II. The populations struggling the most to enter the workforce and stay in school include youth that are less educated, from low-income families, and belong to a racial or ethnic minority group. In 2011, black and Asian male teenagers faced the worst rates of unemployment. These youth are missing opportunities to enter the workforce early and gain job-readiness skills, which could pose dire implications for their futures. To read more, click here.
Asset Poverty in the U.S.
Asset poverty occurs when a family lacks enough resources to live at the federal poverty level for three months. According to a recent study by the Urban Institute, one out of five families in the U.S. was categorized as asset poor in 2010. The Great Recession increased the asset poverty level for both low-income and high-income families. Mid-aged (ages 30-61) individuals saw particularly large increases in asset poverty. To read more, click here.
Researchers Find Link Between Higher Medicare Spending and Joblessness
In the study, researchers linked increased unemployment rates, common in times of economic downturn, with rising Medicare spending. The study noted that "a one-percentage-point rise in the unemployment rate was associated with a $40 (0.7 percent) increase in Medicare spending per capita," or an increase of more than $9 billion among all Medicare beneficiaries between 2008 and 2010. ( Read More)
GoldieBlox: Giving Little Girls Tool Kits Instead of Dolls Could Help Close the Pay Gap
The gender pay gap is a complicated and hotly debated issue, but, believe it or not, baby toys could go a long way in solving the problem. There are many factors that contribute to the discrepancy between women’s pay and men’s, but one is the way little girls are conditioned to think that certain fields are boys’ territory – specifically higher paying fields like science, technology, engineering and math (referred to as STEM). ( Read More)
Gang Violence in Chicago
A study from Northwestern University finds that in Chicago, more than 80 percent of juveniles that enter the criminal justice system early in life have at some point belonged to a gang. Gang violence has resulted in a growing homicide rate and recidivism among youth with the average age of first gun use being 14 years old. As they enter adulthood, these individuals often face high rates of unemployment, continued incarceration, violent deaths, and psychiatric disorders. To read more, click here.
Pay Gap Between Men and Women Starts Right After College
A recent study by the American Association of University Women finds that the pay gap between men and women starts right after college. One year after graduation, women are making 82 percent of what their male counterparts are paid. Even after ontrolling for career choices (men tend to enter higher-paying fields), there still remains a 6.6 percentage-point gap. With this gap starting earlier in life, there is a greater chance for economic disparities to persist and expand later on. To read more, click here.
How Millennials Leaving Their Parents' Basements Could Save the Economy
"Young people are the lazy, smelly scapegoat of the recession. They're not working, they're living at home, they're constantly complaining about their debt, they're not buying cars or houses, and they're not even having babies. But there is an outside chance that The Twentysomething, the media's favorite economic whipping boy, is poised to become the hero of the recovery, and it all comes down to two words: Household formation." (Read More)
State Policies to Support Financial Security Are Still Lacking
A recent study from the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) details policy changes on financial security issues made after October 2011 through 2012 in every state and the District of Columbia in the U.S. The results indicate that while more opportunities are created in some areas, states still have a lot more work to do to help residents build and protect assets. To view the study, click here.
Image Source: CFED
The "American Dream" Remains Just a Dream for Many Americans
Most adults in the U.S. have higher family incomes than their parents, indicating that each generation is doing a little bit better than the one before it. However, this increase has not been significant enough to move many people into a higher income group. Studies show that Americans raised at the top and bottom of the income ladder are more likely to stay where they started with 70 percent of those raised below the middle staying there. In particular, African-Americans raised at the bottom are more likely to remain there as adults compared to other groups. To read more, click here.
Youth Solitary Confinement in the U.S.
Solitary confinement of youth in jails and prisons often leads to depression, mental and physical health problems, and other negative consequences that act against the rehabilitation process according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). This report looks at the detrimental impact of this practice on incarcerated youth through an analysis of jails and prisons in five states and the individual experiences of youth across the country. Summary of the report, full report.
Education: Gateway to the Future
Research from the Brookings Institute shows the significant impact education has on an individual’s future achievement. Since 1970, income levels have declined for those who do not graduate from high school. Education levels also influence life expectancy, rates of incarceration, and community development. Unfortunately, with the black-white achievement gap widening and less investment in research and development for the education sector, the situation could get worse before it gets better. To read the full report, click here.
The State of Child Poverty in the U.S.
In the U.S., 10 percent of children are persistently poor throughout their childhoods. A recent study by the Urban Institute finds that being poor at birth strongly predicts future childhood poverty status. If these children remain impoverished as they grow older, they are more likely to drop out of school, have a teen premarital birth, and/or have inconsistent employment as an adult; factors which often perpetuate poverty into the next generation. To read more, click here.
NPR Planet Money: It Could Be Worse (Unemployment Edition)
The recession was unlike any other during the post-war period — an era notably free of financial crises in the U.S.. And when you compare the current jobs picture with what happened during and after other financial crises around the world, it looks, if not good, then at least less bad. (Read More)
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