For Release on April 13, 2004

MADISON, WI– According to a study released today, a family of four with two working adults, one preschool and one school age child living in Madison needs an annual income of $49,434 to meet their basic needs. That same family would need $47,667 in Milwaukee and $38,992 in Green Bay.

The Self-Sufficiency Standard for Wisconsin was produced by the Wisconsin Women’s Network (WWN) in partnership with the national organization Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW). Research was conducted by Diana Pearce, Ph.D., University of Washington, author of the report. Supporting data was provided by various federal, state, and local governmental agencies, and private organizations.

“Hardworking Wisconsin families are struggling to make ends meet,” said Mona Steele of the Wisconsin Women’s Network, “and the Self-Sufficiency Standard for Wisconsin shows us why. By illustrating what income it takes to meet your needs at a bare-bones level, the report demonstrates that many Wisconsin workers simply don’t earn the wages that are necessary to get by.”

The Self-Sufficiency Standard for Wisconsin charts the actual cost of living and working in each of Wisconsin’s 72 counties and the Milwaukee and Madison metropolitan areas. It measures how much a family must earn to pay for housing, food, child care, health care, transportation, taxes and other basic necessities – without public assistance or help from family and friends. Costs are based on the presence of one or two parents, the age and number of children in each household, and where the family lives. The report also measures the impact of subsidies from employers and governmental agencies on families’ incomes. The report released today is an update of a similar report released in 2000 by the Wisconsin Women’s Network.

“Unfortunately, the picture is nearly the same in 2000 as it is in 2004. Many families do not earn self-sufficiency wages, particularly if they have recently entered the workforce or are experiencing long-term unemployment,” said Dr. Diana Pearce, the report’s lead author. “They cannot afford their housing and food and child care, much less their other basic needs, forcing them to make painful choices between necessities, or to accept substandard or inadequate child care, insufficient food, or substandard housing.”

The report compares The Self-Sufficiency Standard for Wisconsin to the federal poverty line, minimum wage, and median family income. It demonstrates that for most families, earnings above the official poverty line actually fall short of what is needed to meet their basic needs. For example, in Green Bay, a family of three needs to earn more than twice the federal poverty level simply to cover their basic costs.

To bridge the wage gap, the report recommends several basic strategies: provide access to job training and education programs for low-wage workers; reduce costs through work supports, such as child care, housing, food security, and health care, and provide livable wages.

Roberta Gassman, Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development said, “This objective view of what it costs for working families to make ends meet all across the state will be a useful tool for government, business and service providers as we work together to design better programs and policies for Wisconsin’s working families.”

In the 34 other states where the Self-Sufficiency Standard has been calculated and released, it is an effective tool for designing sound public policy, developing programs, counseling low-income families about education and training options, and providing realistic information about whether residents are truly able to make ends meet “We’ve seen this mismatch between what working families need to get by and what they can earn in the marketplace in 35 states across the country,” said Cyndi Lucas of Wider Opportunities for Women. “However, we’ve also seen how effective and critical the Self-Sufficiency Standard has become in creating programs and policies that ensure families who work hard are able, at a minimum, to put a roof over their heads, feed their children, and provide for their family’s safety and well-being.”

Founded in 1979, the Wisconsin Women’s Network is a non-partisan statewide coalition of 50 organizations and several hundred individuals working to improve the status of women in Wisconsin. The Network can be contacted at: Wisconsin Women’s Network, 122 State Street #404, Madison, WI 53703; phone: (608) 255-9809; web: www.wiwomensnetwork.org.

Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) is a 40 year-old national women’s employment organization that works to achieve economic independence and equality of opportunity for women and girls. WOW leads the Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Project – a project that puts tools—like the Self-Sufficiency Standard—in the hands of state-level policymakers, advocates, business leaders and service providers to create better programs and policies for low-income working families. WOW has been a leader in the areas of nontraditional employment, literacy and welfare-to-work strategies for four decades.

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