March 26, 2018

I'm proud to announce that United Ways of California is sponsoring Assembly Bill 2066 to reduce poverty among working Californians and to boost local economies. Assemblymembers Mark Stone (D-Monterey Bay) and Eloise Gómez Reyes (D-San Bernardino) have jointly introduced the measure to extend the California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) to working families and individuals currently ineligible for the credit, including low-income youth, seniors, and immigrants without Social Security Numbers. United Ways of California is joined by Children’s Defense Fund-CA, California Immigrant Policy Center and Golden State Opportunity Fund as co-sponsors for the bill.

The “Digital Divide” persists, despite huge improvements in the capacity and affordability of computers and mobile devices. Low-income consumers increasingly have smart phone technology few could have imagined back in the early 2000s when the term had its heyday (in fact, Latino households, are the largest users of smart phones in California), yet they often lack wi-fi at home and a laptop or desktop computer.

As many as 4 in 10 households in low-income communities still lack broadband access, though the overall rate of broadband adoption statewide is improving. These communities correlate with low-income, largely the same neighbhorhoods our Real Cost Measure study identified,  as shown on these below:

True tax reform should help working middle and low-income Americans. True tax reform should maintain or expand middle class tax deductions and help families climb out of poverty.

The current bills working their way through the House and Senate do none of this! Californians will be worse off as a result. 

Here's what the bills will do: 

Last month, we had the opportunity to explore some of the latest American Community Survey data on median household earnings, and how they have changed over time both nationally and throughout California. (Earnings have largely remained constant for decades among most working families, but there are huge disparities among CA neighborhoods). In this blog post, we are using the same data source to explore the intersection between educational attainment and median personal earnings. This is a particularly important subject as educational attainment is universally acknowledged as a primary factor in eliminating generational poverty, and in human development.

Last Thursday, the U.S. Census Bureau released new supplemental demographic data on health, education, and income well-being on American FactFinder. The annual October release is significant as this new data allows us the ability to dig deeper to see how people are faring in their own local neighborhoods. 

One of the critical pieces of data we look at here at United Ways of California is median household earnings, which illustrates the economic potential of families throughout the state. It is a key component of our Real Cost Measure report, which determines what it takes a given household to make ends meet in California.