Bush's TV Dinner Economics: 39 Million Americans in Working Poor Families

  
One in every five U.S. jobs pays less than a poverty-level wage for a family of four, according to a study by the nonpartisan Working Poor Families Project. The result of so many low-paying jobs is that nearly 39 million Americans, including 20 million children, are members of "low-income working families" -- with barely enough money to cover basic needs like housing, groceries and child care, the study found. The study classified a "working family" as one in which there was one or more children and at least one family member had a job or was actively seeking work. The report said federal and state lawmakers should put more money into adult education and job training programs, increase the minimum wage and expand subsidized child care for low-income parents. Doing so would create more skilled workers who will make more money and, in turn, increase the tax base, the study said. [more ]

• Pell Grants do not keep pace with tuition hikes. Tuition and fees at Univsersities increased  an average of 14 percent last year. Nevertheless,  Fedral Pell Grant aid, the nation's primary college financial aid program for low-income students  remained the same-- the maximum grant is $4,050. As a resukt students must   go searching for private scholarships and grants.In 1977, the maximum Pell grant paid for 77 percent of the cost of tuition, room and board at a public, four-year institution. Today, it covers 41 percent, on average.And despite tuition increases of up to 40 percent at some universities, the maximum grant award has remained frozen since 2002. Neither Congress nor the president has moved to raise the maximum. About 90 percent of Pell grant recipients now leave school with an average debt of nearly $17,000. [more ]
• Executive pay raises over quarter century dwarf average worker's . The gap between CEO and worker pay continues to grow dramatically, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and an annual survey by Business Week magazine. If average worker pay, now at $26,899, had risen at the same rate as CEO pay over the last 25 years, workers would now be earning more than $184,000 a year. If the minimum wage rose at the same rate, it would now be almost $45 an hour. [more ]
• Working Poor Suffer under Bush tax cuts [more]
  
• TV Dinner Economics [more ] "with 3rd World Flavor". Not to be confused with  "Sleep for Dinner" Economics.