What Income Is Poverty Level for a Family of 2, in the Nc

The COVID-nineteen pandemic requires a moral response that targets the root causes of longstanding poverty and inequity  to bring shared prosperity to all North Carolinians.

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented economic crisis with widespread task and income losses that have magnified the already extreme racial, gender, and income inequities in our economy. The recession caused by the pandemic is increasing hardship in North Carolina and across the land and has the potential to further entrench poverty and economic injustice.

At the same time, COVID-19 has revealed how dependent nosotros are on one another. It has shown the essential nature of people's labor in jobs that are undervalued — both in pay and culturally. These positions, like supermarket cashiers, food processing workers, and child caregivers, are disproportionately held by women, people of color, and immigrants. The pandemic has revealed the common sense necessity of ensuring that people can stay home from piece of work when they are sick — without losing pay — because these policies protect everyone's health. And the pandemic has shown us the incalculable value of a robust social safe cyberspace that protects families from going hungry or becoming homeless during a financial crunch.

In 2019, 13.6 percent of N Carolinians lived in poverty — an income of just $25,750 for a family of four. This means the state entered the pandemic with more than than 1.4 one thousand thousand residents in poverty, and many more North Carolinians are likely to feel poverty during their lifetimes. Far from being an upshot affecting a small percentage of people, nearly three in 5 Americans will experience poverty at some signal in machismo.^[1] This report reviews the latest bachelor data on poverty and hardship in North Carolina, including:

• American Community Survey data on poverty and income in 2019 that show stark racial inequities and a lopsided economic system where the wealthiest people benefit the nigh from economic growth.
• How the poverty level compares to a true Living Income Standard of well-nigh $53,000.
• Analysis showing that safety net programs can cut poverty in half.
• Widespread food insecurity and housing instability during the COVID-nineteen pandemic, shown in the results of the new Household Pulse Survey.
• Employment information indicating that while high wage jobs have fully recovered since February, in that location are 17 percentage fewer low wage jobs available.

Poverty limits the potential of our communities. We all want to alive in a state where every N Carolinian — Black, brownish, and white — can thrive, and that means making policy choices focused on lifting people out of poverty. Many people and organizations are already pushing for these changes and organizing across race, income, and geography to demand an equitable and anti-racist economic system. The data in this report tin be one tool for building a very dissimilar recovery from the ane afterwards the Great Recession, which left low-income people and people of color backside. Instead, we need a racially equitable recovery that'south focused on the people who have been harmed the most, that leads to loftier quality, living-wage jobs for the people who currently have the everyman earnings, and that creates a robust social prophylactic net to ensure North Carolina families can atmospheric condition emergencies.

2019 data show that 1 in 7 North Carolinians entered the COVID-19 pandemic already experiencing poverty

The latest American Community Survey data from the U.S. Census released in September 2020 tells us what was happening in North Carolina in 2019.[ii] This year, because of the economic destruction acquired past the COVID-19 pandemic outset in March, the data exercise not paint an authentic picture of poverty or hardship in the state, but the data do show united states that the state entered the pandemic and its associated recession with high rates of poverty and racial inequality.

Due north Carolina didn't use the economic expansion to meaningfully accost poverty

After the Great Recession, the United States experienced the longest economic expansion on record, beginning in 2009 and catastrophe with the COVID-nineteen pandemic in early 2020. In North Carolina, we didn't employ that economic growth to expand key safety cyberspace policies like Medicaid and unemployment insurance or to raise the minimum wage so that piece of work would provide people with enough income to cover their basic needs.

In 2019, 1.4 million Due north Carolinians, or about 1 in every 7 people in the land, lived in poverty.[3] As shown in Figure ane, the poverty rate barely budged from 2018 to 2019, falling by simply 0.iv percentage points from 14 percent to 13.6 percent.[4]

In N Carolina and across the The states, poverty rates shot upward when the Great Recession began in December 2007. Although the Great Recession ended in June 2009 co-ordinate to standard measures of economic growth, low and middle-income people and especially Black and Latinx^[v] families felt its effects for years after that.^[six] In North Carolina, the poverty rate continued to climb until 2012, peaking at over 18 per centum and simply returning to pre-recession poverty levels in 2018.

North Carolina has long had higher poverty rates than the Usa as a whole: In 2019, the state had the 13th highest poverty charge per unit in the state, and at thirteen.6 percent, the poverty charge per unit was 3 percentage points higher than the U.S. rate of 10.5 percent.[7]

These statistics exercise not reflect a lack of wealth. Northward Carolina has the 12th largest economy in the country, and along with the residuum of the nation, its economy grew steadily from 2012 to 2019.[8] But without policies that target the root causes of poverty, growth on its ain is not enough to create shared prosperity. Rather, more wealth is concentrated amid people who are already at the top: In 2019, over half of the total income in Northward Carolina was captured by the richest twenty percentage of residents.[nine] Near i quarter of total land income went to the top 5 per centum richest residents.[ten]

Inequitable economic growth is a problem not only because it harms people who are left behind only as well because information technology's unsustainable. When people who are already rich capture economical gains, they are much more than likely to save that coin than spend it. A stable economic system needs a broad base of consumer spending, which will just grow with increased earnings for low- and middle-income people.[eleven]

Poverty rates by race and gender reflect structural inequities in the economy

The overall poverty rate masks major inequities past race, as shown in Effigy 2. The poverty rate is significantly college for Black, Latinx, and Native American Due north Carolinians with 1 out of four Native Americans in the state and ane out of 5 Blackness and Latinx people living in poverty in 2019.[12]

These disparities reverberate long-standing structural inequities in education, housing, and the labor market that have advantaged white people's incomes and accumulation of wealth in the United States. This long history begins with the theft of Native American country and enslavement of Blackness Africans and continues through many present-24-hour interval policies that continue to advantage white people even though the policies appear to be "race neutral." These include a revenue enhancement code that benefits homeowners and people with intergenerational wealth, every bit well equally an insufficient social safety cyberspace and zoning policies that reinforce racial residential segregation and access to key resources like high quality public schools and good jobs.

Higher rates of poverty among women are connected to the lack of support for working parents

The poverty rate among N Carolina women is more than than xx percent higher than for men. In 2019:[xiii]

• 786,000 women, or fourteen.nine pct, experienced poverty.
• 600,000 men, or 12.ii percent, experienced poverty.

Higher poverty rates amongst women are related to a wage gap that is even more severe for many women of color. Women's labor is undervalued in our economic system, and women are more probable to work jobs that pay low wages and don't provide high quality benefits. Work like kid care that is unduly done past women, especially women of colour, is more likely be viewed as "low skilled" fifty-fifty when our society is entirely dependent on it.[14]

As shown in Figure 3, women in North Carolina overall brand about 83 cents for every dollar that a white human being makes, simply Black women make 63 cents, and Latina women make simply 50 cents. Women also contribute far more unpaid care work — for children, elders, and other family members — than men. Without comprehensive family unit and ill-leave policies women are often forced to work fewer hours or exit the workforce entirely.[15]

COVID-19 has magnified gender inequalities in the labor market in unprecedented ways, with women in North Carolina being far more likely to file for unemployment than men during the superlative of job losses in April 2020.[16] This recession has been uniquely harmful for all women, particularly women of color, who are more probable to piece of work in occupations that accept faced the greatest job losses, such as retail, food service, and hospitality.[17] Simultaneously, the closing of schools and child intendance programs has made it incommunicable for many mothers to continue working in essential jobs that cannot exist done remotely or to work from home while also caring for their children. Loss of jobs or piece of work hours amid women has the potential not only to prepare dorsum progress toward economic gender equity but to damage children in families where women are the primary earners.

Policies that ameliorate atmospheric condition for women of color tin heave anybody. Men likewise benefit from family-go out policies that enable them to form stronger bonds with their children and better relationships with co-parents.[18] Ensuring that women of color, who have been near disadvantaged in the labor market, are thriving would mean the economy was working for everyone.

Immature children have the highest poverty charge per unit of any historic period group

Our communities exercise best when kids have what they need for prophylactic and salubrious evolution and when families are thriving so that no child lives in poverty. But poverty rates by age reveal persistently high levels of childhood poverty, showing that N Carolina has work to do to address the well-being of some of the country's youngest residents.

In 2019, 1 in v North Carolinians under 18, or over 430,000 children, lived in poverty.[xix] The poverty rate for children under v years old was the highest for whatsoever age group at 22 percent.[xx] As shown in Figure iv, child poverty in Due north Carolina increased more steeply than overall poverty when the Great Recession hit. After peaking at 26 percent in 2012, child poverty has remained elevated in comparing to the full poverty charge per unit every bit both declined slowly.

The federal poverty guideline is far below the income that North Carolina families demand to thrive

The poverty charge per unit is an of import data point for understanding hardship in N Carolina, but it is an insufficient measure out for whether people in the state can see their basic needs, much less relieve for emergencies or long-term goals. The federal poverty guideline in 2019 was $25,750 for a family of four, meaning that four people living together with a combined annual income under $25,750 would meet the definition for living in poverty.[21] This guideline applies to the unabridged country, without taking into consideration the major geographic variations in the toll of housing and other goods. Furthermore, the poverty guideline is less than half of a truthful Living Income Standard, which ensures people can afford all essential goods and services.

The Living Income Standard is based on the actual costs of necessities similar food, housing, transportation, health care, and child care.[22] It does non include "non-essential" costs like contributions to savings, entertainment, or recreational travel. For a family of four with two adults and two children in North Carolina in 2019, the average Living Income Standard was $52,946 — more than twice the federal poverty level.[23]

Figure 5 shows that about 2 million North Carolinians who did not technically experience poverty in 2019 even so had incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level. Altogether, almost i in 3 North Carolinians had incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level, indicating that far more than people had difficulty paying for necessities than the official poverty rate indicates.[24] Having a depression income, even if it's enough to comprehend costs from month-to-month, makes information technology extremely difficult to build wealth or to save money that tin can provide a cushion in an emergency. People with low incomes are also less probable to accept access to resources that support wellness like decent housing, loftier quality educational opportunities, and medical intendance. This makes income level one of the strongest predictors of health outcomes and life expectancy.[25]

Many people were close to poverty earlier the COVID-19 pandemic began

The poverty rate also does not bear witness how many North Carolinians were living in financial precarity — one emergency or job loss away from experiencing poverty. Liquid nugget poverty measures if households have plenty readily accessible savings to weather a three-calendar month period with no income. Having enough liquid assets ways that a sudden job loss or unexpected expense doesn't get out families unable to cover basic needs or price them their dwelling or business organization.[26]

Based on the latest available information from 2016, 42 percent of North Carolina households lived in liquid asset poverty, making the widespread task losses caused by the pandemic potentially devastating.[27] While the expansion of government assistance was a temporary lifeline for many families, state and federal policymakers have failed to human activity to extend income supports every bit the economical crisis continues.

The racial inequities on display in poverty rates show up when examining liquid asset poverty. In North Carolina in 2016, the liquid asset poverty rate was 33 percent for white households and 63 pct for Blackness households.[28] This disparity is caused by income inequities along with a long history of policy choices and ongoing racial bigotry that have created barriers to wealth-building for Black families. These include housing policies like redlining and racially restrictive covenants that have prevented many Black people from purchasing homes, one of the key mechanisms for intergenerational wealth transfer in the United States.[29] The Great Recession further entrenched inequities in wealth: Black and Latinx homeowners were more likely to be targeted for the subprime loans that led to the foreclosure crisis.[thirty]

Rubber net programs lift millions of North Carolinians out of poverty

Deep poverty is defined as having an income at or below 50 percentage of the federal poverty level — in 2019 this would be an income of less than $13,000 for a family of 4. Figure 5 shows that 617,000 North Carolinians, or 6 percent of the full population, lived in deep poverty in 2019.

In Figure 6, an assay of historical information on deep poverty for families with children shows that the number of these families increased after the 1996 federal welfare reforms, which significantly reduced greenbacks benefits provided to female-led households through the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program.[31]

The Supplemental Poverty Measure out (SPM) from the U.S. Census Bureau is some other tool for addressing some of the shortcomings of the federal poverty guidelines. The SPM incorporates a variety of adjustments to the poverty measure, including the addition of non-cash benefits such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), housing assistance, and tax credits for working families like the Earned Income and Kid Tax Credits.[32] Data from the SPM allows researchers to see how effective these programs are at lifting people out of poverty. Table 1 shows the results of this assay for North Carolina, which reveals that direct authorities assistance and tax credits together halve the number of people experiencing poverty in N Carolina. These effects are even stronger for lifting people out of deep poverty.

This enquiry makes clear that safe net programs are constructive at reducing poverty — expanding these programs is one of the key elements of an anti-poverty policy agenda.

Hardship is widespread during the COVID-nineteen pandemic

Poverty tin seem like an abstract concept, but fundamentally this issue is virtually whether people can encounter basic needs for themselves and their families — things like putting good for you food on the tabular array, having a safe and stable home, and getting medical care. When people face material hardship and can't afford these necessities, it leads non only to suffering in the immediate term, simply it can have long-term effects on health and economic mobility. Economical insecurity is not an uncommon experience — almost 60 percent of Americans will experience poverty at some point in their adult life, and more than iii in 4 volition spend at least one year beneath 150 percent of the poverty level.[33] Just mass unemployment caused past the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with a total lack of sustained government response, has pushed levels of hardship to new extremes.

Everyone who has lived through a period of economic insecurity knows how challenging it is to plan for the future when immediate needs aren't met. Sustained hardship contributes to chronic stress, which in turn tin cause or worsen chronic physical and mental health atmospheric condition.[34] This is especially hard on families and tin can disrupt children'south cerebral development and educational outcomes.[35]

New data from the Household Pulse survey shows many N Carolinians cannot meet their basic needs

This year, the American Community Survey data are an especially inadequate mensurate of poverty in our state. While this data e'er lags by a yr, the economy has changed drastically in a very brusk period of fourth dimension since COVID-xix hit, leading to mass unemployment and income losses and making statistics from 2019 far less relevant for understanding electric current poverty and income levels. The Household Pulse Survey is a new experimental survey conducted by the Census Bureau to measure the effect of the pandemic on people'south lives.[36] It shows that high levels of hardship — like the inability to pay for nutrient or rent — are widespread.

As shown in Effigy six, a tertiary of adults in North Carolina are having trouble roofing normal household costs. The stark racial inequities prevalent in state poverty information are evident in the Household Pulse Survey besides, with Latinx and Black people showing much college rates of difficulty than white people. (While the survey includes information on Native American and Asian people equally well, these results are unreliable due to very small sample sizes and and so are non included here.) The consistently high rates of hardship for Latinx people shown in this survey may reverberate the fact that noncitizen immigrants, as well equally U.S. citizens who filed taxes with noncitizen family members, were excluded from key relief measures like the economic impact payments in the federal CARES Act.[37] Congress excluded noncitizen immigrants from these supports despite the fact that many of the essential jobs where workers were most likely to be exposed to COVID-19 — such as meatpacking — are dominated by immigrant workers.[38]

As shown in Figure viii, adults with children in their households are more likely to report difficulty roofing expenses. This is inappreciably surprising given the high rates of kid poverty leading into the pandemic and the specific stresses that the pandemic has placed on parents trying to juggle work and child care. This trend of disproportionate hardship faced by households with children is consistent across the measures included in the Household Pulse Survey.

North Carolina renters don't know how they'll take hold of upward on rent

Fifty-fifty earlier COVID-19, many people in North Carolina put huge portions of their income toward paying for housing. Housing costs have continued to rising as incomes take stayed stagnant, and people with the everyman incomes oft have to devote the majority of their annual income to keeping a roof over their caput. More than than 70 percent of North Carolinians with extremely low incomes (roughly equivalent to the poverty level) spend half or more of their earnings on housings costs.[39]

Households that spend over 30 per centum of their income on rent and utilities are considered rent encumbered, while those that pay over half of their income are considered extremely rent encumbered. Nearly half of all renter households in N Carolina in 2019 were rent encumbered.

• 598,000 renter households, or 46 percent, were rent burdened, spending over 30 percentage of their income on hire.[40]
• 280,000 renter households, over 1 in v, were severely rent burdened, paying one-half or more than of their income on hire.[41]

Faced with widespread job loss, hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians have now missed rent payments or aren't confident they'll be able to pay their adjacent month's rent. Figure ix shows that amidst adult renters with children, 1 in 5 aren't defenseless up with past rent payments, while 2 in 5 aren't confident they'll be able to pay side by side month's rent.

Twenty-nine percent of all adults in N Carolina aren't certain they'll exist able to pay side by side month's rent. As shown in Figure ten, racial inequities persist for housing hardship, with over half of Latinx and 1 in 3 Black renters facing doubt near their adjacent month's rent payment.

People who are behind on their rent payments are living with major uncertainty most losing their housing. Nearly iii in v North Carolina renters whose households are not caught upwards on rent payments recollect they are likely to be evicted in the next two months.[42]

While the Centers for Disease Control take issued a federal moratorium on residential evictions for failure to pay hire through the terminate of 2020, the moratorium does not utilize to all renters, and the eligibility rules are circuitous.[43] While this moratorium is better than having no protections in place, it places the burden of proving eligibility on tenants, who are facing loftier levels of stress and instability and will probable need legal assist if their landlord contests eligibility.[44]

Increased levels of food insecurity are clear from survey data and SNAP enrollment

Food security is a critical mensurate of well-beingness, and not having enough nutritious nutrient has a wide diverseness of negative consequences for wellness. These consequences range from chronic illness like hypertension and diabetes to depression and anxiety to behavioral bug among children.[45] One measure of food insecurity is the increase in people seeking nutrient assistance: The number of N Carolinians participating in SNAP benefits increased by 22 percent from February through September 2020.[46]

Household Pulse data also show that ane in 10 adults in North Carolina reported not having enough to eat in the past week, and Figure 11 over again shows a blueprint of Latinx and Blackness people experiencing disproportionate harm.

When it comes to food insecurity, households with children are again reporting higher rates of hardship. Figure 12 shows that i in 6 adults with children in their household reported not having enough to consume in the past seven days.

Low-wage workers are left behind as jobs render for higher wage workers

Employment data by wage from Baronial 2020 evidence that the recession caused by COVID-19 has largely ended for high and heart wage earners in N Carolina. Effigy 13 shows that there are nevertheless far fewer low wage jobs — paying below $27,000 per year — than there were in Jan 2020. In contrast, in that location are slightly more high wage jobs than earlier the pandemic.

Information like this, along with a stock market place recovery that has little effect on working grade Americans, have led economists to declare that "the recession is over for the rich."[47] Without decisive action to address hardship for the people who are nevertheless struggling, economists are predicting a "K-shaped recovery" in which outcomes continue to diverge sharply for wealthy and low-income people.[48]

COVID-xix relief was crucial just didn't get near far enough

COVID-nineteen relief measures, similar the additional unemployment benefits and economic impact payments provided past the federal CARES Act, offered a lifeline for many families. But these supports were unavailable for too many people, including many immigrants who were categorically excluded from provisions of the CARES Act.[49] Economic impact payments were distributed primarily by the IRS, and people with incomes as well low to file tax returns, without depository financial institution accounts, or without cyberspace access were less likely to receive payments on fourth dimension, if at all.[50] 1 survey of SNAP recipients in North Carolina establish that half of respondents had problems applying for aid during the pandemic and that unemployment benefits and the economic bear on payments were the hardest to attain.[51] The cardinal income supports in the CARES Act have at present expired, and neither the federal nor country governments have shown any indication that information technology volition act to see the dire need for additional relief.

Nationwide estimates have plant that although the CARES Act commencement monthly poverty increases in April and May 2020, the monthly poverty rate increased from 15 percentage in February to sixteen.7 pct in September after the additional $600 weekly unemployment payments ended.[52] Consistent with the Household Pulse Survey and the lived experience of communities across the U.S., increases in monthly poverty rates accept been the steepest for Black and Latinx households and for households with children.

Building an equitable economy is necessary for a true recovery from COVID-19

North Carolina cannot afford to rebuild an economy that mirrors the state earlier COVID-19 when 1 in vii residents lived in poverty, wealth and income were concentrated in the hands of a few, and racial inequities were the norm. Instead, we tin can learn from the mistakes made afterwards the Great Recession and piece of work toward a recovery that is targeted toward the people who have been hardest hit past the electric current economical crunch.

For jobs to accost poverty, they must be high quality and pay a living wage

While lack of employment is a major contributor to poverty, many working families in N Carolina were living below the poverty level in 2019. North Carolina's minimum wage is equal to the federal minimum wage at $vii.25 per 60 minutes, and a full-fourth dimension minimum-wage job pays but $xv,080 annually, far lower than the Living Income Standard. A single parent working a minimum wage task and caring for 2 children would need to work more 56 hours per week in order to lift their family higher up the poverty line.

In 2019, for 1 in 4 families living in poverty in North Carolina, the caput of household or their spouse was working full time.[53] Job quality is non just a affair of wages: For a job to provide opportunities for saving and economic mobility, it too needs to offer sufficient and steady hours. Many of the jobs that were added during the economic expansion offered neither, and variable hours and involuntary part-time piece of work have become a significant correspondent to low incomes across the country.[54]

Figure xiv shows that since the Peachy Recession, incomes have been largely stagnant for depression- and medium-income households in North Carolina, only showing substantial gains for the highest income quintile. The top five percent richest households, with an average annual income of almost $370,000, saw by far the greatest increment.

Black, brown, and white Northward Carolinians are organizing for an economy that works for all of united states

Northward Carolinians who are experiencing the hardships acquired by COVID-19 and by policymakers' inadequate responses are not passive victims of an unjust economy. People are organizing across race and class to meet basic customs needs, build support for a sustained public response to poverty, and demand that elected leaders enact policies that lift people out of poverty.

In recent years, the sluggish subtract in hardship rates combined with increasing bear witness that poverty effects mobility, inclusion, and growth in ways that harm u.s. all has led several Northward Carolina communities to embark on commonage touch on models. In Charlotte, inquiry from the Equality of Opportunity Project drew attention to low economical mobility in the region and prompted the establishment of an Opportunity Chore Force focused on adjustment services and funding new initiatives to meet community needs.[55] In Fayetteville, the Pathways to Prosperity initiative is engaged in neighborhood-level piece of work to deconcentrate poverty and to advance solutions in housing, education, and health that reduce hardship and its harmful effects.[56]

Nonprofit direct service organizations have recognized the critical role that people experiencing hardship must play in advancing solutions. These organizations are supporting leadership evolution that connects people to policymakers to inform the design of prophylactic cyberspace systems that address widespread needs. I such case is the Circles of Care program run past Crisis Assist Ministry, which engages people experiencing poverty in the word of solutions and service design.[57]

People who are directly affected by poverty and economic exclusion are also organizing to come across community needs, build power, and alter policy. The Northward.C. 2d Run a risk Alliance is using a local chapter model to create a statewide network of people with criminal records who are pushing to remove the barriers to opportunity and financial security for people returning to their community subsequently incarceration.[58] The Northward Carolina Black Leadership and Organizing Collective is working locally to shift funding abroad from policing and incarceration and into education and health that support Black people's well-beingness.[59] Down Home North Carolina is organizing poor and working-class people in rural counties to build multiracial customs leaders and accelerate economical justice.[60] In the context of COVID-19, people are calling for an inclusive response and for people-showtime policies that ensure every person — Black, chocolate-brown, and white — has the resource to survive this public health and economic crisis. Latinx organizations like Poder NC Activeness have created mutual aid funds to back up immigrants who accept been excluded from public benefits.[61] The Poor People's Entrada is demanding a moral response to COVID-nineteen that addresses the root causes of poverty and inequality.[62]

People and organizations like these are showing all of North Carolina what's possible.

Determination: Northward Carolina can lead the Due south in charting a simply recovery

Northward Carolina'south experience with poverty is emblematic in many means of the South every bit a whole. Figure 15 shows a nationwide county-level analysis from the Opportunity Insights project, which explores where children born to low income parents take the greatest chance of economical mobility. North Carolina and the remainder of the South stand out as solidly red, a region where children who are born poor face loftier obstacles to increasing their earnings as adults.

This is non because there is no wealth in North Carolina or because North Carolina parents don't button their children to succeed. It is considering of choices that North Carolina and other Southern states take made — choices rooted in part in the anti-democratic legacy of Jim Crow racism.[63] Merely North Carolina has the power to brand different choices: to heighten the minimum wage, to expand Medicaid, and to raise taxes on corporations and those who can afford to pay more in guild to fund a robust social prophylactic net. These choices would mean that fewer of the children who are living in poverty right at present would go along to alive in poverty every bit adults.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown a bright light on our land'due south caitiff economic system and on the financial precarity of so many Northward Carolinians, especially Black, Latinx, and Native American residents. Now, North Carolina has the chance to use this lite to chart a new path that brings true, shared prosperity to the country.

Appendix

The manner that the U.Southward. Demography Agency measures and reports on race and ethnicity affects the construction of key data presented in this written report. The Household Pulse Survey, which is a new data product, requires a unlike approach to analysis than the American Community Survey. This appendix provides additional context on these two issues for readers using these information.

Definitions of race and ethnicity

The U.S. Census Agency, which conducts the American Community Survey (ACS), measures Race and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity as split up concepts. Respondents' race is categorized every bit one of the following options:

• White
• Black or African American
• American Indian and Alaska Native (in this report we use Native American)
• Asian
• Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
• 2 or More than Races
• Some other Race

In addition, respondents' ethnicity is categorized every bit either Hispanic or Latino or Not Hispanic or Latino. We use the term Latinx in this report.

Because this does not reflect the style that Latinx identity has been racialized in the U.S., researchers often recode these responses then that anyone categorized as Hispanic or Latino is considered Hispanic or Latino and all other race categories only include people who have identified as Not Hispanic or Latino. However, not all combinations of race and ethnicity are available for every ACS table when the data is first released, then we provide additional detail on the categories used in the various figures here.

Figure 2: Poverty rate past race and ethnicity in Northward Carolina, 2019

• Latinx: Ethnicity is Hispanic or Latino, regardless of race
• White: Race is White, and ethnicity is Non Hispanic or Latino
• All other categories are based on race, regardless of ethnicity

In the ACS information for North Carolina, over 94 per centum of people with Hispanic or Latino ethnicity are in the "White," "2 or More than Races," or "Some other Race" category, significant at that place is very little overlap among the categories in this figure. There is no information for Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders because their population in North Carolina is too small to provide reliable estimates.

Figure 3: Women'due south earnings in North Carolina compared with white men'due south earnings in 2019

• Latina women: Ethnicity is Hispanic or Latino, regardless of race
• All other categories only include people whose ethnicity is Not Hispanic or Latino

Figures 7, ten, and 11: Household Pulse Survey data by race

• Latinx: Ethnicity is Hispanic or Latino, regardless of race
• Blackness and White only include people whose ethnicity is Not Hispanic or Latino

We did not include additional racial categories considering the minor sample size meant the estimates were unreliable.

Acquire more nearly race and ethnicity in the Census

For more information almost how the Census Bureau measures race and the history of these categories, run into:

• U.South. Census Bureau. (2020, Oct 16). Almost Race. https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race/well-nigh.html
• U.Due south. Demography Agency. (2020, October 16). Nearly Hispanic Origin. https://www.census.gov/topics/population/hispanic-origin/about.html
• Brown, A. (2020, Feb 25). "The changing categories the U.South. demography has used to measure race." Pew Inquiry Centre Fact Tank. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/25/the-changing-categories-the-u-southward-has-used-to-measure-race/
• Demby, G. (2014, June xvi). On the Census, Who Checks 'Hispanic,' Who Checks 'White,' and Why. Lawmaking Switch. National Public Radio. https://world wide web.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/06/16/321819185/on-the-census-who-checks-hispanic-who-checks-white-and-why

About the Household Pulse Survey

The Household Pulse Survey is an experimental data product from the U.S. Census Agency. It is designed to rapidly gather and disseminate data on the social and economic effects of the COVID-nineteen pandemic in gild to inform recovery efforts at the state and federal levels.

Phase 2 of the Household Pulse Survey began on Aug. 19, 2020, and releases data every 2 weeks. Due to small sample size, many of the estimates take very high standard errors. In club to get more reliable estimates, we averaged three data releases. Together, these cover the time from Aug. 19-Sept. 28, 2020.

We reported but results for estimates with a coefficient of variation (CV) under 15 percentage, which is why we did not study results for categories of race other than white, Black, and Latinx. The CV is a measure of statistical variability used for analyzing the reliability of an estimate derived from a sample. While there are no specific rules for CV cutoff points, a higher CV indicates a less reliable estimate, and generally a CV of over thirty pct is considered as well high. In analyzing this data, nosotros followed guidance from the Centre on Budget and Policy Priorities to select a more than conservative cutoff of 15 percent.

To calculate percentages, we excluded people who didn't respond to the question. For individual questions:

Figures vii and 8: Share of adults reporting difficulty paying for household expenses in the by week

• Includes people who reported information technology was somewhat or very difficult to pay for usual household expenses in the past 7 days.

Figure 9 and ten: Share of adults not confident they tin can pay next month's hire

• Includes people who reported they were somewhat or not at all confident they could pay adjacent month's rent, along with people whose rent payments have been deferred.

Figures 11 and 12: Share of adults reporting their household did not accept enough to eat in the past week

• Includes people who reported that they sometimes or oft did not take plenty to consume in the terminal seven days.

^[1] Rank, Marking R., and Hirschl, Thomas A., (2020.) Nigh Americans Will Experience Poverty. Against Poverty. https://confrontingpoverty.org/poverty-facts-and-myths/most-americans-will-feel-poverty/

^[two] American Community Survey income and poverty estimates may accept been influenced by the introduction of new survey language in 2019. For the time being, they provide the all-time comprehensive measures of poverty in 2019, and the Budget & Tax Heart is monitoring data virtually these survey results.

^[3] American Community Survey 2019 1-year estimates, Tabular array B17001

^[iv] Ibid.

^[v] Latinx is a gender-neutral term for Latino. In this report, we use Latinx to refer to data described as Latino or Hispanic, unless it refers specifically to women, in which example we use Latina.

^{[half dozen]} Carr, J. H. (2020, March 25). Why Recovery from the Great Recession Favored the Wealthy: The Office of Public Policy. Nonprofit Quarterly. https://nonprofitquarterly.org/why-recovery-from-the-great-recession-favored-the-wealthy-the-role-of-public-policy/

^[seven] American Customs Survey 2019 i-year estimates, Table B17001

^[8] United States Agency of Economic Analysis. (2020, October 2). Annual Gross Domestic Production by State, summary (SAGDP1). https://www.bea.gov/data/gdp/gross domestic product-state.

^[9] American Community Survey 2019 1-twelvemonth estimates, Table B19082

^[10] Ibid.

^[eleven] Bivens, J. (2017). Inequality is slowing Us economical growth: Faster wage growth for depression- and eye-wage workers is the solution. Economic Policy Constitute. https://www.epi.org/publication/secular-stagnation/

^[12] American Community Survey 2019 1-year estimates, Table B17020; The American Community Survey (ACS) measures "Race" and "Hispanic or Latino ethnicity" as separate concepts. For more detail on how these are measured by the ACS and used in this written report, see the Appendix.

^[13] American Community Survey 2019 1-year estimates, Tabular array B17001

^[14] Bleiwies, R., Boesch, D., Cawthorne Gaines, A. (2020, August 3). The Basic Facts Virtually Women in Poverty. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/bug/women/reports/2020/08/03/488536/bones-facts-women-poverty/

^[15] Ibid.

^[16] Pedersen, L. (2020, June sixteen). Women more probable than men to file for unemployment in 2020. North Carolina Justice Center. https://world wide web.ncjustice.org/publications/women-more-likely-than-men-to-file-for-unemployment-in-2020/

^[17] Frye, J. (2020, Apr 23). On the Frontlines at Piece of work and at Home: The Disproportionate Economical Effects of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Women of Colour. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/bug/women/reports/2020/04/23/483846/frontlines-work-home/

^[18] National Partnership for Women and Families. (2020). Fathers Need Paid Family and Medical Exit. https://www.nationalpartnership.org/our-work/resources/economical-justice/paid-get out/fathers-need-paid-family unit-and-medical-leave.pdf

^[19] American Customs Survey 2019 1-twelvemonth estimates, Table B17006

^[20] American Community Survey 2019 1-year estimates, Table B17001

^[21] U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (n.d.). 2019 Poverty Guidelines. https://aspe.hhs.gov/2019-poverty-guidelines; Technically the Census Bureau uses a different measure, called poverty thresholds, which are adjusted based on the age of family members. The simplified federal poverty guideline is the most common measure of poverty, which is why we utilise it hither. For more item, see U.S. Census Agency, August 2020. "How the Census Bureau Measures Poverty." https://www.census.gov/topics/income-poverty/poverty/guidance/poverty-measures.html

^[22] Kennedy. B. (2019, March 27) A Standard Worthy of Due north Carolina Workers: The 2019 Living Income Standard for 100 Counties. North Carolina Justice Center. https://world wide web.ncjustice.org/publications/the-2019-living-income-standard-for-100-counties/

^[23] Ibid.

^[24] American Community Survey 2019 1-year estimates, Table B17002

^[25] Khullar, D., & Choski, D. (2018). Health, Income, & Poverty: Where We Are & What Could Help. Health Diplomacy. https://doi.org/x.1377/hpb20180817.901935

^[26] Prosperity Now. (2020, September 3). Financial Assets and Income: Liquid Asset Poverty Rate. https://scorecard.prosperitynow.org/data-past-consequence#finance/outcome/liquid-nugget-poverty-charge per unit

^[27] Ibid. (2020). Country Outcome Report: North Carolina. https://scorecard.prosperitynow.org/data-by-location

^[28] Ibid.

^[29] Hanks, A., Solomon, D., & Weller, C. East. (2018). Systematic Inequality: How America's Structural Racism Helped Create the Black-White Wealth Gap. Centre for American Progress. https://world wide web.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2018/02/21/447051/systematic-inequality/

^[30] Reid, C. M., Bocian, D., Li, Due west., & Quercia, R. Chiliad. (2017). Revisiting the subprime crisis: The dual mortgage market place and mortgage defaults by race and ethnicity. Journal of Urban Affairs, 39(4), 469–487. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2016.1255529

^[31] Sherman, Arloc. (2016, August 9). After 1996 Welfare Law, a Weaker Safety Cyberspace and More Children in Deep Poverty. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. https://world wide web.cbpp.org/family-income-support/after-1996-welfare-law-a-weaker-condom-net-and-more-children-in-deep-poverty

^[32] Fox, L. (2020, September) The Supplemental Poverty Measure: 2019. U.S. Census Agency. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2020/demo/p60-272.pdf

^[33] Rank, M., & Hirschl, T. (2020). Well-nigh Americans Will Feel Poverty. Confronting Poverty. https://confrontingpoverty.org/poverty-facts-and-myths/most-americans-will-experience-poverty/

^[34] Mayo Clinic. (2019, March nineteen). Chronic Stress Puts Your Wellness at Risk. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20046037

^[35] Blair, C., & Raver, C.C. (2016). Poverty, Stress, and Encephalon Evolution: New Directions for Prevention and Intervention. Academic Pediatrics, sixteen(3 Suppl), S30–S36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2016.01.010

^[36] U.S. Census Agency. (2020). Household Pulse Survey Phase 2: Measuring Social and Economic Impacts During the Coronavirus Pandemic. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/household-pulse-survey.html. For boosted details on this survey and the assay in this report, see the Appendix

^[37] National Immigrant Law Heart. (2020, July 21). Congress Urged to Include Tax-paying Immigrant Families in Next COVID-xix Relief Neb. https://www.nilc.org/2020/07/21/congress-urged-to-include-taxation-paying-immigrant-families-in-next-covid-19-relief-bill/

^[38] Artiga, Due south., & Rae, M. (2020). Health and Financial Risks for Noncitizen Immigrants due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Kaiser Family Foundation. https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/issue-cursory/health-fiscal-risks-noncitizen-immigrants-covid-19-pandemic

^[39] National Low Income Housing Coalition. (2020). Housing Needs By State: North Carolina. https://nlihc.org/housing-needs-by-state/northward-carolina; "Extremely low income" (ELI) is an income limit used to determine eligibility for housing assistance. ELI refers to a household that makes less than xxx per centum of the area median income in a given region, or less than the federal poverty level, whichever is higher. The estimated maximum income for a iv-person ELI household in 2020 in North Carolina is $25,100.

^[40] American Community Survey 2019 1-year estimates, Tabular array B17001

^[41] Ibid.

^[42] U.S. Census Agency Household Pulse Survey Phase 2, Housing Table 3b.

^[43] Woomer-Deters, K. (2020, September nine) New Federal Eviction Moratorium: Does It Apply to Me? North Carolina Justice Center. https://world wide web.ncjustice.org/publications/new-federal-eviction-moratorium-does-information technology-employ-to-me/

^[44] National Low Income Housing Coalition. (2020, October 13). Trump Administration Issues CDC Eviction Moratorium Guidance to Benefit Landlords over Renters. https://nlihc.org/resource/trump-administration-issues-cdc-eviction-moratorium-guidance-benefit-landlords-over

^[45] Gundersen, C. & Ziliak J.P. Food Insecurity and Health Outcomes. Health Affairs. (34)11. https://doi.org/ten.1377/hlthaff.2015.0645

^[46] North Carolina Department of Health and Man Services. (2020.) Nutrient and Diet Service Cases and Participants. https://www.ncdhhs.gov/divisions/social-services/program-statistics-and-reviews/fns-caseload-statistics-reports

^[47] Long, H. (2020, August thirteen). The recession is over for the rich, just the working class is far from recovered. Washington Mail service. https://www.washingtonpost.com/road-to-recovery/2020/08/xiii/recession-is-over-rich-working-class-is-far-recovered/

^[48] Ibid.

^[49] Narea, North. (2020, May five). For immigrants without legal status, federal coronavirus relief is out of reach. Vox. https://www.vocalism.com/2020/5/5/21244630/undocumented-immigrants-coronavirus-relief-cares-act

^[l] Holtzblatt, J., & Karpman, M. (2020). Who Did Not Go the Economic Impact Payments by Mid-to-Late May, and Why? Tax Policy Heart. https://world wide web.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/who-did-non-get-economic-impact-payments-mid-belatedly-may-and-why

^[51] Special information request to the Southern Economic Advancement Project

^[52] Parolin, Z., Curran, M., Matsudaira, J., Woldfogel, J. & Wimer, C. (2020, October 15). Monthly Poverty Rates in the United States during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Center on Poverty & Social Policy, Columbia University. https://www.povertycenter.columbia.edu/news-internal/2020/covid-projecting-monthly-poverty

^[53] American Community Survey 2019 1-year estimates, Table B17016

^[54] Gold, L., & Kim, J. (2020). The Involuntary Part-time Piece of work and Underemployment Problem in the U.Due south. CLASP. https://www.clasp.org/publications/study/brief/involuntary-function-fourth dimension-work-and-underemployment-trouble-the states

^[55] The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Opportunity Job Force Report. (2017). Leading On Opportunity. https://www.leadingonopportunity.org/study/introduction

^[56] Pathways For Prosperity. (2020). https://world wide web.pathwaysforprosperity.org/

^[57] Nichol, K., & Hunt, H. (2016). Economic Hardship, Racialized Full-bodied Poverty, and the Challenges of Low-Wage Work: Charlotte, Due north Carolina. NC Poverty Inquiry Fund. https://www2.constabulary.unc.edu/documents/poverty/publications/charlottepovertyreport_final.pdf

^[58] North.C. Second Risk Brotherhood. (2020). https://ncsecondchance.org/

^[59] NC Black Leadership and Organizing Commonage. (2020). http://www.ncbloc.black/

^[60] About Down Abode NC. (2020). Down Home North Carolina. https://downhomenc.org/nigh-us/

^[61] Latinx-Led Mutual Aid Funds Fill Gaps, Come across Critical Community Needs During COVID-19. (2020, Baronial 7). Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust. https://kbr.org/news/latinx-led-common-aid-funds-fill up-gaps-meet-critical-community-needs-during-covid-19/

^[62] Poverty Amidst Pandemic: A Moral Response to COVID-19. (2020, June 13). Poor People'due south Campaign. https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/resource/poverty-amongst-pandemic-resources/

^[63] Leachman, G. Mitchel, 1000., Johnson, North., Williams, E. (2018, November 15). Advancing Racial Equity with Country Revenue enhancement Policy. Heart on Budget and Policy Priorities. https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-upkeep-and-tax/advancing-racial-disinterestedness-with-state-taxation-policy

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Source: https://www.ncjustice.org/publications/2020-poverty-report-persistent-poverty-demands-a-just-recovery-for-north-carolinians/

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