Working as a Child Abuse Prevention and Education Specialist for a local Child Advocacy Center, I am often granted permission to attend local and statewide training’s and events. I am very lucky to have a budget that allows me to pursue these opportunities and become more educated on the issues families are facing today. I am a lifelong learner and absolutely love this specific perk of my job. Working at a non-profit these perks can often come few and far between. Most recently, I was able to attend the 2nd Annual ALICE Summit held at Saginaw Valley State University on February 11, 2020. (Happy 211 Day) It was an introduction and update on the third ALICE in Michigan: A Financial Hardship Study report done in Michigan and the possible implications of what the data found.
It had a lineup of impressive speakers (from what I gathered in their bios) from local United Way agencies and Consumers Energy corporation. Most I did not personally recognize but one in particular I knew immediately and I was positively overjoyed to see. When I say positively overjoyed, I actually mean OMFG FANGIRLING OVER HERE.
I wrote in a previous blog post about how Lt. Govenor Garlin Gilchrist II had brought down the house at the National Democratic Convention in Detroit this past summer. His speech was one of the most inspiring moments of the experience and being part of the audience that was able to give the first African American Lt. Govenor in Michigan’s history a well deserved standing ovation was a complete honor. His entire presence at the ALICE summit showed that this data and research surrounding ALICE could and *should* have SERIOUS policy implications. I was basically hands shaking, leg bobbing, head turning so fast every time the door opened, unable to contain myself excited.
I bet you’re beginning to wonder what has the Lt. Govenor traveling to the corn fields of SVSU? What has captured hundreds of Michigan professionals attention enough to sell out the and event on a Tuesday? Who is ALICE? Why is she important to me? Why is she important to you? This update of the ALICE Report for Michigan provides the most comprehensive look at the population called ALICE-an acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. ALICE households have incomes above the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) but struggle to afford basic household necessities. ALICE is the single mom working two jobs barely making end meets only to find she’s now disqualified herself from receiving healthcare by making $500 too much last year. ALICE is the family of four with both parents working for minimum wage and struggling to find suitable childcare they can afford for their children. ALICE is the senior citizen choosing between prescription medications and groceries. ALICE is every single person who works hard to make a living but still can’t seem to make ends meet. They “make too much” to receive most services they so desperately need.
In Michigan, 1,664,606 households–43 percent— could not afford basic needs such as housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, and technology in 2017.
2019 Michigan Alice report
How can this be? How can almost half of our state’s population be struggling to make ends meet? So many people in the room sat staring at the screen in disbelief. Not me…. I looked around wondering how out of touch some of these individuals must be to work with these people every single day and not know. People are struggling. They are barely surviving. I see it every day. I experience it often. The 2019 Michigan ALICE Report focuses on some trends that have moved more Michigan families below the ALICE threshold. These include but are not limited to:
Basic cost of living still on the rise. Over the last decade, there has been a shift away from tradition full-time, full-benefits jobs. What’s a pension right? ALICE households are working households; they hold jobs and provide services that are vital to the Michigan economy. The core of the problem is that these jobs to do not pay enough to afford the basics of housing, child care, food, healthcare, and transportation. This is a fundamental structural problem.
The cost of the average Michigan family budget increased by 27 percent from 2010 to 2017.
2019 michigan ALICE REport
Although unemployment rates are falling, ALICE workers are still struggling. Low wage jobs completely dominate the employment landscape and there has been a noticeable increase in contract, seasonal, and on-demand jobs. You can see this if you do a simple job search on indeed. I’m shocked to see the starting rates across all professions. Masters degree for $15 an hour? Bachelors degree for $12? Minimum wage still has not surpassed $10. This leads to less financial stability for Michigan citizens and makes it nearly impossible for workers to find jobs with wages that can support even a basic household budget. Gaps in wages are growing wider and wider and vary depending on the size and location of employers as well as the sex, gender, education, sexual orientation, and race/ethnicity of workers. Talk about the roaring 20’s. The lack of economic and social mobility is comparable to that of days far in our past. It’s embarrassing and frankly poor business and policy.
61 percent of jobs in Michigan pay less than $20 an hour.
2019 Michigan alice report
As health care costs rise, there will continue to be increasing disparities in health according to income and other social determinants of health such as access to health care, educational opportunities, and safe neighborhoods. It is well documented that people in lower-income groups do not live as long as those in higher-income groups. I’m not trying to sound like a revolutionary (or maybe I am) but this sounds like class warfare to me. Take Flint, Michigan for example. It’s 2020 and they still DO NOT HAVE CLEAN WATER.
The rise in the Household Survival Budget in Michigan between 2010 and 2017 was driven primarily by 111 percent increase in health care costs for a single adult and and 98 percent increase for a family of four.
2019 Michigan alice report
For all firm sizes in Michigan, new-hire wages were at least 34 percent lower than stable wages, and as much as 47 percent less for those in firms with 20 to 49 employees.
2019 michigan alice report
The rugged individualism that is so revered in American society is mirage. There has been a basic belief in America that if you just work hard enough, you can support yourself and your family. Hell, in my Grandma’s day the wife was rarely expected to contribute financially. Yet the data presented in this report and relayed here in this blog post shows that for more than 1,600,000 households in Michigan, almost half of the states population, this is not the case. This data challenges the persistent belief that poor people and those that are struggling could just budget themselves out of their financial issues. If they didn’t have an I-phone, I’m sure they could afford that deductible. If only they didn’t stop for Starbucks a couple times a month or have a date night with their significant other then they could have pulled from a savings account when their water heater went out this winter. People are so quick to judge, so quick to condemn. The truth is, ALICE is your neighbors. ALICE is 4 out of 10 of the people you see at the grocery store at the pick up line at school. ALICE is your sister. ALICE is your grandma. ALICE is the server working weekend shifts while going to school full time. ALICE is the mom who works two jobs for most of her three year old’s life, sacrificing crucial time with her child to make ends meet. ALICE is me. ALICE might be you.. and it’s okay. So many people and families are struggling every single day and beating themselves up over their personal failure. This is not an individual/personal failure; it’s a systemic failure. It’s not your fault. We have a market that does not value workers. We have a nation that does not value families. How can we expect these exhausted and stressed parents to go home every day with positive parenting solutions and endless patience? We’re not only asking them to poor from an empty cup…. we’re often asking them to borrow water for THOUSANDS of dollars, in order to pour what is absolutely necessary to survive only to be empty and in need to borrow again and again and again. Toxic stress has been shown to have severe negative consequences on families.
At least 49 percent of Michigan residents do not have money set aside to cover expenses for three months in case of an emergency such as illness or the loss of a job.
2019 michigan alice report
There has been a 30 year trend in Michigan where the economy has grown but the growth has only been felt by the top 40 percent. More than 1 million individuals have no access to paid sick leave in Michigan. 1 in 5 kids struggle to access food at some point in the year. If these numbers don’t terrify you, they should. We have to do better. This is not a political ploy (not purposely anyway). These are real numbers released in the third ALICE report by the Michigan Association of United Ways. We must call on our state’s policymakers and business leaders to speak up and make moves. We must be paid what we are worth. We deserve to afford our basic needs. The future prosperity of our communities are built by ALICE workers yet they are being left behind at dangerous speeds. We must undo the damage and it will require aggressive state policies. This will require true collaboration and dedication. We must remove the barrier to services. We have to reduce the stigma surrounding needing help and dispel the idea that we have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. Rugged individualism should be a thing of the past. It takes a community. It takes a village. Let’s build a village. We must lower the threshold for statewide programs that are designed to be a safety net but should be a also be a ladder for upward economic mobility. We have to address the ROOT CAUSES of financial instability. We need to build our capacity for empathy and diminish our capacity for judgement. We can do that by building more awareness surrounding the ALICE population and education of the facts of the economic inequality in our home state of Michigan. If you are struggling in Michigan, please know that you are not alone. If you don’t know where to turn and need help now: Call 2-1-1. They can direct you to services and programs in your area.
Of all of Michigan families with children, there were 3999,881, or 40 percent, with income below the ALICE threshold in 2017.
2019 Michigan alice report
For more information on ALICE or to get a digital copy of the ALICE Report where all of the data from this blog post was pulled from. www.michiganalice.org
To access reports from all states, visit UnitedforALICE.org