United Way of Tennessee recently released its 2024 ALICE Report.
ALICE stands for Asset Limited Income Constrained, Employed, and is the acronym used by United Way organizations nationwide to describe households that are living above the Federal Poverty Level, but still cannot afford the basic cost of living in their county.
United for Alice is the grassroots movement that spread from the United Way of New Jersey across half of the states, including Tennessee.
A recent 14-page report that examined data from 2022 and shared some of its findings: The most glaring summary is presented in a chart, showing that of the 2.8 million households in Tennessee, a little over half live above the ALICE threshold, and 44 percent live below the ALICE threshold, while only 13 percent of those meet the Federal Poverty Level.
However, not all is bad news.
Between 2021 and 2022, the number of households in poverty in Tennessee decreased by nearly 5,000. Yet, the number of ALICE households increased by more than 34,000 households.
In essence, what this all means in real number is the following:
- The ALICE Household Survival Budget for a single adult in Tennessee was $26,856 in 2022.
- The Federal Poverty Level was $13,590 for a single adult in Tennessee in 2022.
- The ALICE Household Survival Budget for a family of four with an infant and a preschool child was $75,612 in 2022.
- The Federal Poverty Level was $27,750 for the same four-member family in 2022.
The COVID pandemic had a significant influence on poverty rates, especially for families, nationwide and in Tennessee, but COVID assistance was temporary and started running out in 2021.
The 2024 ALICE Report for Tennessee shows that for the family of four — with an infant and preschooler — the tax credits during the pandemic decreased their budget needs to survive and meet their basics from $75,612 to $70,416 annually.
The federal expansions of the Child Tax Credit and the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit had the most impact on ALICE families through 2021, but this assistance largely expired that year.
Consequently, according to a report the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) released on June 10, 2024, “Overall poverty and child poverty rose in 2022 by the largest amounts on record in data back to 1967.” This pretty much nils the progress made during the COVID-19 pandemic as essentially 14.5 million Americans moved out of poverty in 2021 and just as many — 14.5 million — fell into poverty in 2022. I think you may agree when I assume it was mostly the same households that were affected by this shift.
The CBPP release looks at national, not Tennessee specific data. But it still helps us understand the impact the loss of these tax credits had on local families. Furthermore, the CBPP looks at the Federal Poverty Level, not the ALICE threshold. It explains the impact on poverty from the COVID assistance the following way:
The poverty rate declined to a record level of 8 percent in 2021 due to the federal pandemic relief and economic security programs. But in 2022, the expiration of that assistance got the poverty rate back to 12.4 percent.
Furthermore, “the American Rescue Plan’s Child Tax Credit expansion and stimulus payments, in conjunction with other relief measures, spurred the largest one-year drop in child poverty on record in 2021,” according to CBPP report the authors. Once again, as soon as this assistance expired, our nation saw the largest increase in child poverty in a one-year period.
The reason I think it is so important for us to understand and truly think about these numbers is that we clearly know what impacts the Federal Poverty Level. In other words, politicians and policy makers know how to reduce poverty.
In a book called Poorly Understood: What America Gets Wrong About Poverty, authors Mark Robert Rank, Lawrence M. Eppard, and Heather E. Bullock discuss that childhood poverty costs the U.S. an estimated $1 trillion per year. This is calculated based on loss of economic productivity, increased health care costs and increase in expenses related to criminal justice. Furthermore, the authors point to the benefits of reducing poverty. For every dollar we spend on reducing poverty, the country would save up to $12 in expenses.
All these numbers are hard to follow, and when we look at the Federal Poverty Level of $27,750 for a family of four in 2022 (which is meanwhile $31,200 for 2024), we may wonder how anyone can realistically survive on that little. That brings me back to the recent ALICE report, which tries to focus on what an actual survival budget ought to look like.
When we talk about affordability, we need to consider income levels. The 2024 ALICE report found that while low-income wages increased during the pandemic, which was partially due to a tight labor market, 70 percent of the 20 most common low-income jobs in Tennessee still paid less than $20 per hour. Tennessee has not adopted a state income tax and has remained at the federal minimum income of $7.25 per hour since 2009.
A living wage for a two-parent household with two children in Tennessee is $23.53 per hour, according to the Wage Calculator of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In comparison, Tennessee’s poverty wage is $7.50 per hour, meaning you need to make this much to meet the Federal Poverty Level. Yep, that’s more than the minimum wage we have here.
Usually when I read these types of reports and analyses, I am mostly interested in trends over time. The ALICE report looks at the timeframe of 2010-2022 and concludes that the Tennessee population that lives below the ALICE threshold has increased over this time period.
Specifically, between 2010 and 2022:
- The total number of Tennessee households increased by 15 percent;
- Households in poverty decreased by 6 percent; and
- The number of ALICE households increased by 15 percent.
The report also provides demographic breakdowns (presented in the chart entitled Household Financial Status and Key Demographics). The racial make-up of the overall Tennessee households was 75 percent White, 16 percent Black or African American, and about 4 percent Hispanic or Latinx. In comparison, the population under the ALICE threshold consists of 70 percent White, 21 percent Black or African American, and 4.6 percent Hispanic.
Further information in the report is not surprising. As housing costs across the state increase, it hits families below the ALICE threshold harder — 42 percent of them reported that their rent increased in the past 12 months compared to 26 percent of households with incomes above the ALICE threshold.
In 2022, 62 percent of households below the ALICE threshold were rent burdened, meaning they paid more than 30 percent of their income for rent. And 35 percent were extremely rent burdened, which means more than half of their household income was spent on housing costs. Not surprisingly, seniors are extremely vulnerable and often cannot afford to retire.
The reason I keep mulling over these types of analyses is that we need to find ways to convince policy makers and politicians to invest in people rather than corporate profits that we know will not trickle down to the poor. As public servants, they owe us as much. A financially healthy population remains the engine for productivity and a truly healthy economy. Living wages reduce not only poverty but increase productivity.
Furthermore, I hope that more of us start paying attention to ALICE versus only the Federal Poverty Level because we simply cannot meet the basic needs in Tennessee — or in this country — by getting above the Federal Poverty Level while still not meeting the ALICE threshold.
If we want all our households to succeed from childhood into old age, then we must start talking about a living wage.