KEJA
Economic
Justice
Policy Framework
CRITICAL ISSUES 2006-2010
Economic Security
Goal:
Assure that the basic needs of all Kentuckians are met by promoting policies
that provide adequate and fair individual incomes and that provide economic
supports for families with low and moderate incomes.
Analysis: Kentucky incomes lag behind the nation. Kentucky’s median household income was $37,369, just 81 percent of the national median of $46,326 according to the latest (2005) Current Population Survey data. More than 275,000 Kentuckians would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage to $7 an hour. Most of these are full time workers and many are married with children.
The income gap between the richest families in Kentucky and the poorest 20 percent of families has grown from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. This growth in income inequality was the 9th largest in the nation.
As a result of low income, many Kentucky families face barriers providing for health care, child care, and housing needs, as well as everyday necessities of food, clothing, and transportation.
In particular, today nearly 44,000 Kentuckians experience homelessness over the course of a year. This includes up to 14,600 children. One in four Kentucky households live in sub-standard housing, overcrowded conditions, or pay more than 30 percent of their household income for housing.
Across the state, programs that exist to provide subsidized or affordable housing have been stretched to the breaking point. In Louisville alone, more than 16,000 families are waiting for housing assistance. Waiting lists in many rural communities have been closed to new applicants because the demand so far exceeds the resources available.
While
federal funding for affordable housing has decreased by 48% since the
1970’s, Kentucky has struggled to muster the political will needed
to adequately address the housing crisis.
Principles: The United States
was built on the ideal that hard work should pay off, that individuals
who contribute to the nation’s economic growth should reap the benefits
of that growth. The benefits of economic growth should not be skewed in
favor of the richest Kentuckians as they have in the last two decades.
Government policies should address the negative outcomes of a capitalist economic system by requiring an adequate minimum wage and providing for human needs of low-income and other vulnerable persons.
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