The Just-Getting-By Cost of Living in West Virginia in 2009 for young families

The latest in the Self-Sufficiency Standard Studies series has just been published.  See http://www.wvbep.org/bep/lmi/selfsufficiency/self%20sufficiency%20standard%2009.pdf

The Self-Sufficiency Standard is a consistent methodology for demonstrating the barebones cost to live independently at an "all needs met, but no frills" budget level, by county.  It assumes rental housing suited to the size and configuration of the family (though opposite-sex children may share a bedroom); an average paid-off car for each adult; childcare suitable to the ages of the children so that all adults can work; health care, including  employer-provided insurance; 100% homemade meals at the USDA Low-Cost Food Plan level (about $2 per person per meal); miscellaneous costs at 10% of the subtotal of the preceding categories; taxes, less EITC, CCTC and CTC.

Here's how it stacks up, for the least and most expensive counties in West Virginia:

			Lowest-Cost County in WV				Highest-Cost County in WV
	Federal Poverty Guideline		County	SSS	% FPG		County	SSS	% FPG
Single Adult	$10,830		Randolph	$17,033	157%		Jefferson	$20,359	188%
Adult and an infant	$14,570		Cabell	$25,319	174%		Jefferson	$28,961	199%
Adult and a preschooler	$14,570		Gilmer	$25,249	174%		Hampshire	$29,379	202%
Adult, an infant and a preschooler	$18,310		Braxton	$32,140	176%		Hampshire	$36,558	200%
Adult, schoolage and a teenager	$18,310		Fayette & others	$25,800	141%		Jefferson	$29,713	162%
Adult, infant, preschooler and schoolage	$22,050		Greenbrier	$40,499	184%		Jefferson	$48,277	219%
Two adults, infant and a preschooler	$22,050		Braxton	$42,972	195%		Jefferson	$46,397	210%
Two adults, preschooler and schoolage	$22,050		Braxton	$41,671	189%		Jefferson	$44,995	204%

A few observations from this data.  I'm putting aside the differences among counties, just looking at the least and most expensive counties in a state most of us realize is among the least expensive in the US.

• Adding an infant to a single adult costs about $8,000 (after about $3,000 in tax credits),  -- and this methodology makes no particular accounting for costs like a crib, or car seat or stroller or diapers; it accounts for childcare and food and housing and healthcare for that infant, plus 10% more for "all other".    The Federal Poverty Guideline calculation allows less than $4,000, and that child brings no wages.
• Two adults, and infant and a preschooler can live for roughly $10,000 more than than a single adult with the same two children, and it costs $17,000 to $20,000 for a single adult to get by alone.  So while two can't live as cheaply as one, there are economies -- and divorce creates great financial hardships (as well as the reverse being true).    Again, the FPG calculation allows less than $4,000 for the additional person in the household, but the second adult can generally earn more than that amount.   The combined FPG for the single parent with 2 children and the single adult comes to $29,140, while the family of four is considered to be in poverty with an income below $22,050.  

This Self-Sufficiency Standard Study didn't show what percentage of West Virginia's households live below the SSS level, but when I've done the calculation for Connecticut, Colorado and California, I've found that roughly 40% of the children live in families with insufficient income to meet their most modestly defined needs.

How can a society dedicated to the proposition that we're all created equal accept that?

Comments

[arizona insurance]

Those can't be annual figures. Who can live on those amounts??