State Findings: A 50-State Economic Issue

State resources and policies are critical to the economic prospects of America’s working families. Every state has families that are working hard, but struggling to achieve economic success and security. According to new analysis of 2006 U.S. Census data:

• California and Texas each have more than a million low-income working families, while Florida and New York each have more than 500,000.

• Even the five states with the smallest percentage of such families -- New Hampshire, Maryland, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey -- are home to roughly 500,000 low-income working families collectively.

• In 13 states, 33 percent or more of working families are low-income, and two states, Mississippi and New Mexico, have 40 percent or more.

• In eight states, 40 percent or more of the children of working adults reside in low-income families.

In some states and regions of the country, economic opportunity is not equally shared:

• In 13 states, 50 percent or more of minority working families are low-income. By comparison, there is not one state where white working families represent one-half of the low-income population. At most, in West Virginia, one-third of white working families are low-income.

• In seven states, more than one-third of low-income working families have a parent without a high school degree, with one state, California, exceeding 50 percent. Among working families that are not low-income, only 10 percent nationally have a parent who did not complete high school.

• More than one in five jobs nationally, or 22 percent, is in an occupation paying wages that fall below the federal poverty threshold. In eight states, more than a third of all jobs are in poverty-wage occupations.⁶

• Thirty-nine percent of low-income working families include a parent without health insurance, nationally. Fifteen states have 40 percent or more; two states, Texas and New Mexico, have 50 percent or more.
  

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