Source: 2016 American Community Survey and the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator. The costs of health care, child care, food and housing alone eat up about two thirds of the income needed to maintain a stable middle-class lifestyle. These expenses can easily consume a family’s monthly cashflow. families with working mothers rose by an estimated 70 percent from 1985 to 2011, according to the U.S. And the average cost of child care for U.S. The average cost for public, four-year college tuition rose by 160 percent during that span nationwide, due in part to declining support for higher education in state budgets. Though better than nothing, that increase barely outpaces inflation and pales in comparison to rising costs. The bump was even smaller for low-wage workers trying to work their way up, just 6.7 percent over that span. Limit the range to the last 25 years and wages for a typical mid-wage worker in Georgia are up by only 10.4 percent, rising to $33,440 in 2016 from $30,280 in 1991. The leading cause is that wages-the primary source of income for the vast majority of families-remained mostly stagnant since the end of the 1970s. Middle-class Georgians are on shakier ground than their predecessors a generation ago. Less than 3 percent of low-income children around Albany, for example, will achieve the proverbial rags-to-riches American Dream.įlat incomes and rising costs squeeze Georgia’s middle class. The likelihood of getting ahead is even lower in much of the state, especially rural areas. Georgians Face Long Odds of Getting AheadĪ Georgia child born to parents at the bottom of the economic scale has no more than a 41 percent chance of reaching the middle class, and just an 8 percent chance of reaching the top.
by state, metropolitan area, and county,” Sommeiller, Price, and Wazeter (2016) An estimated 93 percent of all income growth in Georgia from 1979 to 2014 went to the wealthiest 1 percent, or households making more than about a half-million dollars a year today. The lopsided gains are especially tilted to the top 1 percent, or a narrow sliver of investors, shareholders, CEOs and wealthy estates at the very top. That’s far more unequal than a few decades ago.
The richest 10 percent of Georgians now bring in about half the state’s total income each year, with the bottom 90 percent of Georgians splitting the other half. Much of the problem is tied to inequality. Every Georgian blocked from success is a potential worker, entrepreneur, teacher or inventor whose talents are left on the sidelines. That uneven path to prosperity not only breaks a fundamental promise of the American Dream, it’s bad for economic growth. More worrisome, that same child has only a 41 percent chance of just reaching the middle class. In Georgia, a child born to parents at the bottom of the income scale has an 8 percent chance at best of working her way into the upper class. About 92 percent of Americans born in 1940 wound up making more in their careers than their parents, while only 50 percent born in 1980 can expect to do the same. Nationwide, it’s harder than it once was for regular people to get ahead no matter how hard they try. The simple reality is the American connection between hard work and economic reward is severed. Georgians today are working harder than ever yet struggling to succeed. It’s too hard for Georgians to get ahead. A few key points can pinpoint the gaps in today’s economy, show how it fails too many Georgians and highlight how a different approach can help more families, businesses and communities thrive.
Lopsided economic growth and declining opportunity weakens communities and undermines the state’s trajectory. But the average Georgian is barely gaining ground, stuck in place or left out entirely. Today, Georgia’s economy provides high profits and decent economic gains-to some. Eight Targeted Investments Can Help Georgia’s People and Economy ThriveĪny case for where a state needs to go must begin with a story of where it is, where things fall short and why a different path could prove better.
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