October, 25 2016, 12:00am EDT
Low Wages and Student Debt Break the Promise of Prosperity
 To make ends meet, a single adult with student loan debt needs to be paid more than $17 per hour in most states
WASHINGTON
Some 43 million people in the United States have student loan debt. Yet, that significant expense is left out of traditional cost of living or living wage calculations. Considering that a monthly student loan payment is about the same as a car payment or groceries, and is often more than health insurance or utilities, it's a critical factor in family budgets.
Tuesday, People's Action Institute releasedWaiting for the Payoff: How Low Wages and Student Debt Keep Prosperity Out of Reach. The report calculates how much a single worker must be paid hourly, working full-time, to make ends meet. There is also a second calculation, adding in the monthly student loan expense.
Nationwide, adding in the median monthly student debt payment to the cost of living increases the single adult living wage to more than $16 per hour in every state, and to more than $17 per hour in most states.
Waiting for the Payoff includes numbers nationally, and for each of the 50 states and Washington, D.C. for both the single adult living wage and student debt living wage.
* Traditional Single Adult Living Wage and Student Debt Living Wage by State
* Single Adult Living Wage and Current Minimum Wage by State
* Median Student Debt and Monthly Payment for Graduates by State
"In the past, the promise of a college degree was a more prosperous life - certainly you could expect to be able to make ends meet. But that promise has been broken," said LeeAnn Hall, co-executive director of People's Action Institute. "College graduates, especially women and people of color, are struggling with low wages and high student loan debt that doesn't allow them to support themselves, much less their families.
"We need better wages and affordable higher education for everyone if we are all going to prosper and move our country forward together," said Hall.
Waiting for the Payoff shows that a $15 an hour minimum wage is a modest demand - the minimum wage in every state falls far short of an actual living wage. In Alabama, the $7.25 minimum wage is 47 percent of the $15.49 needed to make ends meet - without student debt. In California, the $10 minimum wage is just half of the $19.90 it takes for a single adult to get by. Add in student debt and a worker needs $21.05 to stay afloat in California.
"Higher education is lauded as the great equalizer and a solution to the growing income gap. But wages, even for those with a college degree, have not kept pace and have even declined in many occupations," said Allyson Fredericksen, deputy director of research and author of the report.
"Student debt especially impacts students of color, who are more likely to borrow money for college. Then they are hit again in the job market where women and people of color, even with bachelor's degrees, are paid less than white men with the same level of education," said Fredericksen.
The Job Gap Economic Prosperity Series of reports have been produced since 1999 by the Alliance for a Just Society. Last summer the Alliance merged with several other organizations and is now People's Action Institute.
Allyson Fredericksen continues as the lead researcher and author of the report series.
Please join Fredericksen in a discussion of the report by phone on Tuesday.
What: Telephone conference call to discuss "Waiting for the Payoff"
Who: Allyson Fredericksen, author and researcher for People's Action Institute
When: Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016
Time: 2 p.m. Eastern/ 1 p.m. Central/ 11 a.m. Pacific
Call-in Number: (515) 604-9000 passcode: 639371#
What is a living wage? A living wage allows people to meet their basic needs, without public assistance, and provides them some ability to deal with emergencies and plan ahead. It is not a poverty or survival wage. In this report, living wages are calculated on the basis of family budgets for several household types. Family budgets include basic necessities such as food, housing, utilities, transportation, health care, child care, clothing and other personal items, savings, and state and federal taxes. This assumes full-time work at 40 hours per week, for 52 weeks per year.
People's Action builds the power of poor and working people, in rural, suburban, and urban areas to win change through issue campaigns and elections.
LATEST NEWS
Person Self-Immolates Outside Courthouse of Trump's NY Trial
An unverified online manifesto identifies the person as "an investigative researcher" who has discovered that "our own government (along with many of their allies) is about to hit us with an apocalyptic fascist world coup."
Apr 19, 2024
This is a developing story... Please check back for possible updates...
Law enforcement officials confirmed to CNN that someone lit themself on fire Friday outside the New York City courthouse where former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, is on trial for allegedly falsifying business records.
"The man walked into the park across the street from the courthouse, throwing flyers into the air," the network reported, citing law enforcement. "He then pulled something out of a backpack—it was not immediately clear what the item was—and lit himself on fire."
Journalists were in the area for the historic trial and CNN anchor Laura Coates was among those who described the scene live on-air as New York Police Department officers and emergency responders worked to extinguish the fire.
Police were "slow to respond in part because of barricades around park," Politico's Emily Ngo explained, sharing photos and videos from the scene on social media. There is "only one way to get into park outside the courthouse without jumping the fence. It's been barricaded in anticipation of protests. And since there hasn't been much in the way of protests, police presence is light. Police had to run all the way around to get to the man."
The person who self-immolated "was responsive when he was removed but he is very, very badly burned. Body charred," Ngo said.
CNN reported that the flyers featured allegations of wrongdoings against New York University and said, "NYU is a mob front."
A self-identified citizen journalist named Jack shared on social media a photo of a booklet the person reportedly left in the dirt.
An unverified Substack post says in part: "My name is Max Azzarello, and I am an investigative researcher who has set himself on fire outside of the Trump trial in Manhattan. This extreme act of protest is to draw attention to an urgent and important discovery: We are victims of a totalitarian con, and our own government (along with many of their allies) is about to hit us with an apocalyptic fascist world coup."
Inside Manhattan Criminal Court, the remaining jurors were sworn in for Trump's case, in which he faces 34 charges for records related to alleged hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 election cycle. There are 12 jurors and six alternates.
The former president was indicted by a New York grand jury last spring. He also faces two federal criminal cases—one related to his handling of classified material and another for trying to overturn his 2020 loss, which culminated in the January 6, 2021 insurrection—as well as an election interference case in Georgia.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Important Step': EPA Finalizes Rule to Clean Up Forever Chemical Contamination
While praising the move, campaigners also said that the agency "must require polluters to pay to clean up the entire class of thousands of toxic PFAS chemicals, and it must ban nonessential uses."
Apr 19, 2024
Environmental and public health advocates on Friday welcomed the Biden administration's latest step to tackle "forever chemicals," a new Superfund rule that "will help ensure that polluters pay to clean up their contamination" across the country.
"It is time for polluters to pay to clean up the toxic soup they've dumped into the environment," declared Erik D. Olson, senior strategic director for health at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "We all learned in kindergarten that if we make a mess, we should clean it up. The Biden administration's Superfund rule is a big step in the right direction for holding polluters accountable for cleaning up decades of contamination."
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—called forever chemicals because they remain in the human body and environment for long periods—have been used in products including firefighting foam, food packaging, and furniture, and tied to various health issues such as cancers, developmental and immune damage, and heart and liver problems.
"This action, coupled with EPA's recent announcement of limits on PFAS in drinking water, are critical steps in protecting the public."
As part of the Biden administration's "PFAS Strategic Roadmap," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule designates perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) as hazardous substances under the Superfund law—the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.
"President Joe Biden pledged to make PFAS a priority in 2020 as part of the Biden-Harris plan to secure environmental justice. Today the Biden EPA fulfilled this important promise," said Melanie Benesh, vice president for government affairs at the Environmental Working Group (EWG).
David Andrews, EWG's deputy director of investigations and a senior scientist, has led studies that have found that PFAS are potentially harming over 330 species and more than 200 million Americans could have PFOA and PFOS in their tap water.
"For far too long, the unchecked use and disposal of toxic PFAS have wreaked havoc on our planet, contaminating everything from our drinking water to our food supply," he noted. "Urgent action is needed to clean up contaminated sites, eliminate future release of these pollutants, and shield people from additional exposure."
Walter Mugdan, a volunteer with the Environmental Protection Network and the former Superfund director for EPA Region 2, explained that the "landmark action will allow the agency to more strongly address PFAS contamination and expedite cleanups of these toxic forever chemicals while also ensuring that cleanup costs fall on those most responsible—the industrial polluters who continue to manufacture and use them."
"This action, coupled with EPA's recent announcement of limits on PFAS in drinking water, are critical steps in protecting the public from these harmful compounds," added the former official, referencing the first-ever national limits on forever chemicals in drinking water that the agency finalized earlier this month.
As an EWG blog post detailed in anticipation of the new rule earlier this week:
A hazardous substance designation allows the EPA to use money from its Superfund—the EPA's account for addressing this kind of contamination—to quickly jump-start cleanup at a PFOA- or PFOS-polluted site and to recover the costs from the polluters. If a company that contributed to the PFAS contamination problem refuses to cooperate, the EPA can order a cleanup anyway and fine the company if they fail to take action.
[...]
When a chemical is added to the list of hazardous substances, the EPA sets a reportable quantity. Any time a substance is released above that quantity it must be reported. By imposing reportable quantities, the EPA will get immediate information about new PFAS releases and the chance to investigate immediately and, if necessary, take actions to reduce additional exposures. This information is also shared with state or tribal and local emergency authorities, so it can reach communities more quickly.
"For years, communities that have been exposed to these chemicals have been demanding that polluters be held accountable for the harm they have created and to pay for cleanup," Safer States national director Sarah Doll highlighted. "We applaud EPA for taking this step and encourage them to take the next step and list all PFAS under the Superfund law."
Liz Hitchcock, director of Safer Chemicals Healthy Families, the federal policy program of Toxic-Free Future, similarly celebrated the EPA rule, calling it "an important step forward that will go a long way toward holding PFAS polluters accountable and beginning to clean up contaminated sites across the country."
Like Doll, she also stressed that "until we declare the full class of PFAS hazardous and prevent further pollution by ending the use of all PFAS chemicals in common products like food packaging and firefighting gear, communities will continue to pay the price with our health and tax dollars."
Mary Grant, the Public Water for All campaign director at Food & Water Watch, agreed that further action is necessary.
"Chemical companies have attempted to hide what they have long known about the dangers of PFAS, creating a widespread public health crisis in the process," Grant emphasized. "These polluters must absolutely be held accountable to pay to clean up their toxic mess."
"Today's new rules are a necessary and important step to jump start the cleanup process for two types of PFAS," she said. "While we thank the EPA for finalizing these rules, much more is necessary: The EPA must require polluters to pay to clean up the entire class of thousands of toxic PFAS chemicals, and it must ban nonessential uses of PFAS to stop the pollution in the first place."
Noting that it's not just the EPA considering forever chemicals policies, Grant called on Congress to "reject various legislative proposals to exempt for-profit companies, including the water and sewer privatization industry, from being held accountable to pay to clean up PFAS."
"It is an outrageous hypocrisy that large for-profit water corporations seek to privatize municipal water and sewer systems by touting themselves as a solution to PFAS contamination, and yet they want to carve themselves out of accountability for cleanup costs," she argued. "No corporation should have free rein to pollute."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Green Groups Slam RFK Jr. as 'Dangerous Conspiracy Theorist and Science Denier'
"With so much at stake, we stand united in denouncing RFK Jr.'s false environmentalist claims."
Apr 19, 2024
A dozen national green groups on Friday published an open letter exposing what they say are the dangers of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s quixotic Independent U.S. presidential bid by highlighting his embrace of conspiracy theories and his use of language often spoken by climate deniers.
"Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is not an environmentalist. He is a dangerous conspiracy theorist and science denier whose agenda would be a disaster for our communities and the planet," the letter argues. "He may have once been an environmental attorney, but now RFK Jr. is peddling the term 'climate change orthodoxy' and making empty promises to clean up our environment with superficial proposals."
"The truth is, by rejecting science, what he offers is no different than Donald Trump," the signers asserted, referring to the former Republican president and presumptive 2024 GOP nominee.
The letter continues:
In the fact-free world that both he and Trump live in, objective reality simply does not exist. Their policy platforms are instead driven by what will benefit Big Oil and the greedy corporations that fund them. We know, however, that environmental progress depends on following scientific fact and putting people over politics.
With so much at stake, we stand united in denouncing RFK Jr.'s false environmentalist claims. We can't, in good conscience, let him continue co-opting the credibility and successes of our movement for his own personal benefit.
"RFK Jr. is a bleak reminder that our democracy is incredibly vulnerable," the letter adds. "Any support for this Kennedy-in-name-only will inevitably result in a second Trump term and the complete erosion of vital environmental and social gains made to date."
The letter is signed by the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, Friends of the Earth Action, LCV Victory Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, Climate Emergency Advocates, Climate Power, Earthjustice Action, Food & Water Action, NextGen America, Sierra Club Independent Action, Sunrise Movement, and 350 Action.
Earlier this month, the Kennedy campaign fired New York state director Rita Palma after she admitted that her "No. 1 priority" is to siphon votes from President Joe Biden—who she described as the "mutual enemy" of both the Kennedy and Trump voter.
Last month, More Perfect Unionreleased a video highlighting the ultrawealthy Republican donors and Trump backers who are also financing Kennedy's White House run, which many observers believe could play spoiler to Biden's reelection bid.
In a stinging rebuke, prominent members of the Kennedy political dynasty reaffirmed their support for Biden on Thursday. Numerous relatives have been urging Kennedy to drop out of the race.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular