Working Poor

The number of working families living in poverty in Colorado increased by 16,000 from 2004 to 2012 – a jump of almost 50 percent, the Bell Policy Center reports in Measuring Opportunities for Working Families, released today. In addition, the portion of all Colorado working families living in poverty increased from one in 17 to one in 12 over the same period.

This report by the Bell Policy Center finds that, even before the current economic downturn, our state's poor and low-income working families were struggling and falling behind.

In 2004, the Bell Policy Center produced Opportunity Lost, When Hard Work Isn't Enough for Colorado's Families, a review of economic indicators and a status report on the state's poor and low-income working families.

In an update to that report, the Bell finds that working poor and low-income families now fare worse on many of the same indicators examined in our 2004 report.

Even before the recession began hammering family finances, researchers say, many of Colorado's working families were falling fast into poverty.

The economic downturn continues to compound the problem. Many local families say they're losing hope for a better life here.

"There's no ‘American Dream' here for people like me," said Durango mother Theresa Rodriguez, who said she struggles to get by.

By Heather Scofield
The Durango Herald

As local residents and officials mobilize to meet struggling families' needs today, advocates say some big-picture and novel approaches also will be a necessary part of the battle against poverty.

Here are a few of the concepts gaining traction around the nation:

Tax credits

The National Poverty Center issued a report last year indicating their research found that state and federal Earned Income Tax Credits "dramatically boosted the incomes of low-income households."

The Denver Post

One in 12 Colorado families is in poverty despite having family members employed, according to a study released Monday by the Bell Policy Center.

The number of working poor families in the state has grown by 51 percent in the past six years, from 32,124 families in 2004 to 48,410 in 2010.

In 2010, a family of four needs to make $22,050 to stay above the poverty line.

Bell also found that more than 25 percent of working families, or 151,875, do not earn enough to meet their basic needs, up from 20 percent six years ago.

The findings of a new national report on the state of low-income working families point to the importance of the Bell Policy Center’s continuing efforts to expand opportunity related to education, health care and economic security in our state.

A compilation of data used in the 2004 "Opportunity Lost: When Hard Work Isn't Enough for Colorado Families" report.

This issue brief provides a one-year update for several of the indicators included in the Bell???s April 2004 report, "Opportunity Lost: When Hard Work Isn't Enough for Colorado's Working Families."

WASHINGTON, D.C. - More than one in four American working families now earn wages so low that they have difficulty surviving financially, a new report concludes. The report finds that too many jobs pay poor wages and provide no benefits, and that American workers are poorly prepared and supported to move into better paying jobs.

A Denver Post Sunday Perspective asserting that raising the minimum wage by voting for Amendment 42 is morally right and economically right.