The poorer the community, the higher percentage of kids whose parents divorce. But by getting the data out there and raising the questions, it starts an interesting dialogue. The findings also included some hopeful signs, Shemitz said. She said much of the decline in those communities was attributable to Medicaid income levels being raised to include more families. She said welfare reform stood out as an area that needs more investigation, noting that the drop in welfare rolls here has been accompanied by an increase in child poverty.
National statistics indicate a marked increase in working poor families.
Particularly at this time, when so many families have so much. Some of the results are startling. Hall translated the wage findings into the numbers jobs that would be lost if each area raised its average wage to meet the state average. If you have a high traditional unemployment rate in a region, there is acute pain for a number of families, but the rest of the families may be doing fine. When a region's families are chronically underpaid, she said, the pain is widespread.