According to a recent study, less than 20% of local jobs could provide for a family of three. For those of us that are sole-providors who are feeding a wife and two kids, I’m sure that percentage is lower (as the study says that only 19% of jobs provide a living wage for a family of four — if both parents work). To quote the article:
A Deschutes County family of three — one working adult with two children — must earn $23.14 an hour to meet basic needs, says the new report. A single worker requires at least $11.30 an hour to make a living in Deschutes County.
That’s a hair over $48,000/year. I can tell you one thing without getting into how much I make: I’m not making that much money, I’m just really frugal. I am feeding my wife and two kids, paying my bills, student/home/car loans, with quite a bit less than that, but I’m surviving — barely.
More commentary will undoubtedly appear at some point on the Bend Economy Blog (one of the best local blogs for this type of thing), but feel free to comment here.
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If a single person was to make $11.30 (gross) per hour that would leave that individual with a take home of $1,486.50 per month (their W-4 would be single with 1 allownace – right?) once taxes are taken out (that’s just taxes). That comes to a $472.10 shortfall. According to the gross-up calculator http://www.paycheckcity.com/copaycycle/grossupcalculator.asp
if you need $1627.80 a month to live ($19,533.60 annually) you will need to make $12.47 an hour.
And remember that this ‘living wage’ is an average cost for Deschuttes County. My calculation for Bend’s living wage (ave rent is $965 for 2005 from EDCO and then adjust the houshold and savings) is $16.73 per hour – and that is without any extra deductions such as 401k, etc… That comes to $34,799.83 gross a year…
I’m barely above that and I have a degree in Economics – go figure…
After looking at their calculation closer, it looks like they are using ‘Head of Houshold’ and 1 for the single calculation – that results in a $12.24 an hour living wage.
OK, since you’re the economist, what would the living wage be for a family of four — husband and wife and two little girls — with only a single income-provider in the household? Just curious how much I should be asking for next time I scream for a raise 😉
I don’t know if I could count that high…
Their information:
http://nwfco.org/pubs/2006.09_LW.in.econ.Deschutes.pdf
An easy guestimate would be the following equation:
$12.24 * (self + ((your spouse + #of children) * .5)) = living wage
Or, in your case, $30.60 an hour or $63,648.00 gross per year – remember that it does not include any voluntary deductions…
Good Luck!
Yikes…I wish I was making that kind of money. Thanks for the info.
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