State short on "living-wage" jobs
More than a quarter of the job openings in the state pay less than $20,942 a year, the minimum income a single adult needs to cover basics such as rent, health insurance, food and transportation, according to the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations, the advocacy group for the poor that published the study.
The odds worsen for a single parent of two young children who would need to earn at least $43,608 a year in Washington to make ends meet. More than three-quarters of job openings statewide — 77 percent — paid less than that, the study found.
The findings are based on figures from 2002, the most recent data available.
"It's still an economy that produces a relatively high number of lower-wage jobs," said Paul Sommers, a Seattle University economist and adviser to the study's researchers. "This makes it difficult for households to meet reasonable budget needs."
Predictably, competition for even the lowest of the living-wage jobs is tough.
For every job paying $20.97 an hour, the base for a single parent of two, there are 13 job seekers, the study found. For jobs paying at least $10.07 an hour, the living-wage threshold for a single adult, there are four job seekers.
Andy Drott is one of them.
The 60-year-old computer programmer can't find a job in his old pay range, $75,000 a year. So now he's competing with others for lower-paying jobs, some as low as $10 an hour.
At that rate, he'd be earning about $20,800 a year, not enough to cover food, his health insurance ($300 a month) and the mortgage on his Mill Creek home ($1,300). He shares the house with his wife, Mary, who suffered two strokes recently and now collects Social Security disability insurance.
Yet for Drott, who has had to pull money out of retirement savings to pay living expenses for the past 20 months, a low-wage job is better than no job at all.
"I don't have work," he said.
Washington's minimum wage, which is tied to inflation, is one of the highest in the country at $7.16 an hour, or $14,892 a year. The federal minimum is $5.15. But the state's relatively generous minimum doesn't cover savings for emergencies or retirement.
"Many Americans have managed to do without savings," Sommers said. "This is a bad thing. People aren't preparing for retirement, they're not prepared for an illness, they're not able to put a child through college."
Typical expenses for a single parent with two young children include $728 a month for rent and utilities, $369 for food, $426 for transportation and $925 for child care, according to the report.
Despite the gloomy findings, Washington's average wage rose to $38,794 last year from $37,921 in 2002. The latest job-vacancy survey published by the state Employment Security Department showed dramatic growth in some high-paying sectors, such as health care, where the median wage — half make more and half make less — is $21 an hour, and construction, paying a median of $15 an hour.
Median wage for all occupations combined is $10.50 an hour.
Shirleen Holt: 206-464-8316 or sholt@seattletimes.com