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in the economy
Economic mobility has long been a central theme of the great American success story. Through hard work and thrift, we’re assured, even families of modest means can raise themselves up, build a comfortable life, send their children to college and have the satisfaction of knowing that subsequent generations will be better off than their parents and grandparents were.
For much of the 20th century, that story has held true for North Carolinians. It’s still true today, but the upward climb has gotten noticeably steeper, according to a new economic study. Yes, people can still pull themselves up by their bootstraps, but it takes ever longer arms, according to the nonprofit N.C. Budget & Tax Center.
Today, a third of North Carolina’s working families are actually low-income working families, defined as having income of less than $37,620 for a household of four. The proportion of low-income working families has steadily increased since 2000. In the Southeast, only South Carolina has a higher percentage of low-income working families. The trend is especially bleak for minorities, who are more than twice as likely as whites to be in the low-income family category.
People may not be as conscious, however, of the obstacles confronting downsized breadwinners who want to work and learn their way back to a middle-class lifestyle -- or enable their children to do so. One obstacle is the increasing cost of advanced education. “Many low-wage working families cannot acccess the education needed to better themselves,’’ the report notes. Another of particular importance for economic development initiatives is the nature of many new jobs being created in North Carolina. “Despite having reoriented its economic development policies away from infrastructure investments and towards business subsidies,’’ the report says, “North Carolina has not secured quality jobs. Instead, many subsidized jobs pay poorly and offer little chance for career advancement.’’
The report offers some concrete solutions: Make college and other post-secondary education and training opportunities more accessible to low-income residents, particularly through expanding support for the community college system and providing more help for individual workers who want to attend school part time or take noncredit courses. Corporate recruiters need to concentrate on the quality of jobs, not just the numbers, favoring companies that offer a living wage along with health insurance and other benefits. The state’s tax structure -- as many economists have argued -- needs a major revamping to reduce the burden on low-income working families.
North Carolina’s 20th century transformation from Tobacco Road provincialism to progressive New South came about because of wise public policies and investments in infrastructure, education and workforce development. If the state is to continue to prosper in the 21st century, it must renew its efforts to help more working families create their own success stories. Reprinted from The Salisbury Post