Womenstake, NWLC's Blog

Tighten our belts? You have to be kidding.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) is expected to introduce a bill that could come to a vote this week, which would cut SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps) benefits for 4 to 6 million struggling Americans. SNAP provides critical assistance to millions of people, mostly women and children, to stave off hunger. In 2011, SNAP lifted the incomes of almost 3.9 million people above the poverty line (including 1.1 million women and 1.7 million children). And in a nation where nearly 50 million Americans suffer from food insecurity annually – including 15.8 million children – SNAP benefits are tangible, direct, and life-saving. But they’re already modest, averaging less than $1.40 per person per meal.

And now they’re on the chopping block.

On Tuesday, the Census Bureau will release new data on poverty, income, and health insurance in the U.S. in 2013. As we get ready to crunch numbers, we thought it would be helpful to take a deeper look at what these numbers will tell us about health insurance.

Where does this data come from?

Every month, the Census Bureau surveys approximately 50,000 households to estimate the unemployment rate. This is known as the Current Population Survey (CPS). Once a year, they ask additional questions on health coverage and income. This supplement is known as the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC). The ASEC questions regarding health insurance explore whether each member of the respondent household had insurance coverage throughout the previous calendar year, and if so, what kind of coverage. According to the Census Bureau, the ASEC is the most widely used source of data on health insurance coverage in the U.S.

Big news from a big state today: the California legislature passed a minimum wage increase! Governor Jerry Brown has confirmed that he will sign the bill, noting in a statement that the legislation “is overdue and will help families that are struggling in this harsh economy.”

Currently, California’s minimum wage is $8.00 per hour – higher than the federal level of $7.25 per hour, but still far too low in a state with a notoriously high cost of living. Under the new law, California’s minimum wage will rise to $9.00 in July 2014 and to $10.00 in January 2016 – higher than any state’s minimum wage today. (Because the minimum wages in nearby Washington and Oregon are indexed to rise with inflation, those wages may be around $10 by 2016 as well.)

This is a major step forward for hundreds of thousands of workers in California – especially for women, who represent about 60 percent of the state’s minimum wage workforce. A minimum wage of $10.00 per hour will bring annual full-time pay up from $16,000 to $20,000, enough for a mom with two kids to pull her family out of poverty. According to the Governor’s Office, 25 percent of California children – that’s about 2.4 million – live in families where at least one parent earns the minimum wage.