Progress Illinois
January 30, 2014
From Progress Illinois:
A new report from the Heartland Alliance’s Social IMPACT Research Center finds that the poverty rate in Illinois, at about 15 percent in 2012, is the same as it was in 1960.
The report, which comes on the heels of the War on Poverty’s 50th anniversary, also shows that 388,000 Illinoisans still live in poverty despite having someone in their household who works full-time.
“Today, the jobs that are available at the low-skilled end of the economy simply don’t provide wages and benefits that create economic security,” Social IMPACT Research Center Director Amy Terpstra said in a statement. “What this means is that, in Illinois, you can work full time and still be living in poverty.”
Since 1960, the number of working age Illinois men and women in poverty has increased, poverty rates have barely changed for African Americans and Latinos, and women are still more likely to be poor than men, the report showed.
For men ages 18 to 64 in the state, the poverty rate jumped from 8.9 percent in 1960 to 12.1 percent in 2012. For women ages 18 to 64, poverty grew from 12 percent to 15.3 percent during the same time period.
As of 2012, 32 percent of African Americans and 21.4 percent of Latinos in Illinois lived in poverty. That hasn’t changed much since 1960, when the poverty rate was 35.8 percent among African Americans and 20.7 percent among Latinos. Moreover, 44.6 percent of African American children and 27.8 percent of Latino children in the state were living in poverty in 2012, compared to 10.8 percent of white children. Unemployment influences poverty rates, and the report noted that nearly 1 in 2 black males ages 16 to 24 are jobless and cannot find work.
“As a nation and as a state, we have made important investments in safety net programs that help lift many people out of poverty and ease the hardship of being poor. But poverty is still a reality for 1.9 million Illinoisans,” Terpstra added. “Significant economic, demographic, and legislative shifts occurred in the last 50 years and many War on Poverty programs were not large enough or designed to offset these significant changes. As a result workers are struggling to support their families, more women are poor, and racial inequality persists.”
Over the past 50 years, however, there has been some progress in fighting poverty in Illinois.
Poverty among senior citizens in the state went down significantly from 29.8 percent in 1960 to 8.8 percent in 2012 thanks to the expansion of Social Security and Medicare, among other programs. Although poverty has dropped among this population, it is also important to note that nearly half of the country’s senior citizens are economically vulnerable and have incomes that are less than two times the supplemental poverty line.
