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Report on Louisiana livable wages released

LOUISIANA WEEKLY — Having a full-time job does not guarantee economic security, according to the updated ALICE Report for Louisiana published by the United Way

Published

6 years ago

January 16, 2019

Oakland Post

By Fritz Esker

Having a full-time job does not guarantee economic security, according to the updated ALICE Report for Louisiana published by the United Way.

ALICE is an acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. The report was a collaboration between The Louisiana Association of United Ways and 11 Louisiana United Ways.

“The ALICE data shows that the economic benefits of low unemployment, increased productivity, and a booming stock market are not reaching all residents,” said ALICE report author Stephanie Hoopes, Ph.D.

The report states that low-paying service economy jobs have increased but other job opportunities have decreased. Most jobs in each state now pay less than $20 an hour, but in Louisiana 66 percent of jobs pay less than $20 an hour, as of 2016. The majority of the jobs in that percentage pay less than $15 an hour (equivalent to $30,000 a year, full-time). Twenty-nine percent of jobs in Louisiana pay between $20 and $40 an hour and only four percent pay $40-60 an hour.

“The reality is wages haven’t grown as fast as the costs of basic needs (like rent, childcare, etc.),” said Michael Williamson, president and CEO of the United Way of Southeastern Louisiana.

When accounting for age, the youngest households in Louisiana (those headed by people under 25) were the most likely to be in poverty. However, the households most likely to fall into the ALICE category were both the youngest and the oldest (those headed by people 65 and older).

In the 2016 ALICE report, the United Way highlighted the story of Ashley Durand, a young single mother working in a coffee shop. Durand released a prepared statement in a press conference for this year’s report. She has received help from the Earned Income Tax Credit and is now pursuing an associate’s degree in nursing. But she said it is still important for ALICE families to tell their stories, even though many Americans are taught to always “pull yourself up by your boot straps.”

“So many ALICE(s) are silent because they feel like they should try harder and not complain,” Durand wrote. “If others’ experiences are like my own, I can say that we are trying our best, but sometimes we need a break to change our circumstances.”

Williamson echoed Durand’s sentiment, stating that many people at the ALICE threshold are full-time workers average Americans see every day: grocery store cashiers, nursing home caregivers, and fast food workers.

“These are individuals that are working…They are doing all the right things, but they just aren’t earning the wages that would allow them to meet the needs of their families,” Williamson said.

In Orleans Parish, 53 percent of the city’s 154,355 households are at or below the ALICE threshold (29% were at the threshold and 24% were in poverty). That percentage has increased since 2010, when 46 percent of the city’s households were at or below the ALICE threshold.

Families with children are struggling to make ends meet in Orleans Parish. Eighteen percent of married families with children are at or below the ALICE threshold. Seventy-nine percent of families headed by a single mother and 60 percent of households headed by a single father are at or below the ALICE threshold.

Race affects a person’s likelihood of being at or below the ALICE threshold. In Orleans Parish, 58,558 African Americans (68.7% of the city’s African-American population) is at the ALICE threshold or in poverty. Meanwhile, 16,547 white residents are at or below the ALICE threshold (29.7%).

Stats from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development included household survival budgets for Orleans Parish. These numbers, also from 2016, indicate what it would take for someone to simply survive in New Orleans, not including any savings. A single adult would need $22,176 a year and an hourly wage of $11.09 to get by at a minimal level. A family of four would need $60,732 a year.

Williamson said the answer to these problems is not an either/or one. He said wages need to rise to reflect the increased costs of living, but there also needs to be more job training programs like those the United Way offers. Williamson said if workers are given more marketable skills, it can make employers want to pay them more.

The full Louisiana ALICE data can be found online at www.launitedway.org/ALICE.

This article originally appeared in the Louisiana Weekly.

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Gov. Newsom Approves $170 Million to Fast Track Wildfire Resilience

AB 100 approves major investments in regional conservancies across the state, including over $30 million each for the Sierra Nevada, Santa Monica Mountains, State Coastal, and San Gabriel/Lower LA Rivers and Mountains conservancies. An additional $10 million will support wildfire response and resilience efforts.

Published

2 days ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Courtesy of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Facebook page.

By Bo Tefu
California Black Media

With wildfire season approaching, last week Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill (AB) 100, unlocking $170 million to fast-track wildfire prevention and forest management projects — many of which directly protect communities of color, who are often hardest hit by climate-driven disasters.

“With this latest round of funding, we’re continuing to increase the speed and size of forest and vegetation management essential to protecting communities,” said Newsom when he announced the funding on April 14.

“We are leaving no stone unturned — including cutting red tape — in our mission to ensure our neighborhoods are protected from destructive wildfires,” he said.

Newsom also signed an executive order suspending certain regulations to allow urgent work to move forward faster.

This funding builds on California’s broader Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, a $2.7 billion effort to reduce fuel loads, increase prescribed burning, and harden communities. The state has also launched new dashboards to keep the public informed and hold agencies accountable.

California has also committed to continue investing $200 million annually through 2028 to expand this effort, ensuring long-term resilience, particularly in vulnerable communities.

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California Rideshare Drivers and Supporters Step Up Push to Unionize

Today in California, over 600,000 rideshare drivers want the ability to form or join unions for the sole purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection. It’s a right, and recently at the State Capitol, a large number of people, including some rideshare drivers and others working in the gig economy, reaffirmed that they want to exercise it.

Published

2 days ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

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By Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌
California‌ ‌Black‌ ‌Media‌

On July 5, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into federal law the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Also known as the “Wagner Act,” the law paved the way for employees to have “the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations,” and “to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, according to the legislation’s language.

On April 8, the rideshare drivers held a rally with lawmakers to garner support for Assembly Bill (AB) 1340, the “Transportation Network Company Drivers (TNC) Labor Relations Act.”

Authored by Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), AB 1340 would allow drivers to create a union and negotiate contracts with industry leaders like Uber and Lyft.

“All work has dignity, and every worker deserves a voice — especially in these uncertain times,” Wicks said at the rally. “AB 1340 empowers drivers with the choice to join a union and negotiate for better wages, benefits, and protections. When workers stand together, they are one of the most powerful forces for justice in California.”

Wicks and Berman were joined by three members of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC): Assemblymembers Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), Sade Elhawary (D-Los Angeles), and Isaac Bryan (D-Ladera Heights).

Yvonne Wheeler, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor; April Verrett, President of Service Employees International Union (SEIU); Tia Orr, Executive Director of SEIU; and a host of others participated in the demonstration on the grounds of the state capitol.

“This is not a gig. This is your life. This is your job,” Bryan said at the rally. “When we organize and fight for our collective needs, it pulls from the people who have so much that they don’t know what to do with it and puts it in the hands of people who are struggling every single day.”

Existing law, the “Protect App-Based Drivers and Services Act,” created by Proposition (Prop) 22, a ballot initiative, categorizes app-based drivers for companies such as Uber and Lyft as independent contractors.

Prop 22 was approved by voters in the November 2020 statewide general election. Since then, Prop 22 has been in court facing challenges from groups trying to overturn it.

However, last July, Prop 22 was upheld by the California Supreme Court last July.

In a 2024, statement after the ruling, Lyft stated that 80% of the rideshare drivers they surveyed acknowledged that Prop 22 “was good for them” and “median hourly earnings of drivers on the Lyft platform in California were 22% higher in 2023 than in 2019.”

Wicks and Berman crafted AB 1340 to circumvent Prop 22.

“With AB 1340, we are putting power in the hands of hundreds of thousands of workers to raise the bar in their industry and create a model for an equitable and innovative partnership in the tech sector,” Berman said.

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California Holds the Line on DEI as Trump Administration Threatens School Funding

The conflict began on Feb. 14, when Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), issued a “Dear Colleague” letter warning that DEI-related programs in public schools could violate federal civil rights law. The letter, which cited Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ended race-conscious admissions, ordered schools to eliminate race-based considerations in areas such as admissions, scholarships, hiring, discipline, and student programming.

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2 days ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

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By Joe W. Bowers Jr
California Black Media

California education leaders are pushing back against the Trump administration’s directive to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in its K-12 public schools — despite threats to take away billions in federal funding.

The conflict began on Feb. 14, when Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), issued a “Dear Colleague” letter warning that DEI-related programs in public schools could violate federal civil rights law. The letter, which cited Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ended race-conscious admissions, ordered schools to eliminate race-based considerations in areas such as admissions, scholarships, hiring, discipline, and student programming.

According to Trainor, “DEI programs discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another.”

On April 3, the DOE escalated the pressure, sending a follow-up letter to states demanding that every local educational agency (LEA) certify — within 10 business days — that they were not using federal funds to support “illegal DEI.” The certification requirement, tied to continued federal aid, raised the stakes for California, which receives more than $16 billion annually in federal education funding.

So far, California has refused to comply with the DOE order.

“There is nothing in state or federal law that outlaws the broad concepts of ‘diversity,’ ‘equity,’ or ‘inclusion,’” wrote David Schapira, California’s Chief Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, in an April 4 letter to superintendents and charter school administrators. Schapira noted that all of California’s more than 1,000 traditional public school districts submit Title VI compliance assurances annually and are subject to regular oversight by the state and the federal government.

In a formal response to the DOE on April 11, the California Department of Education, the State Board of Education, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond collectively rejected the certification demand, calling it vague, legally unsupported, and procedurally improper.

“California and its nearly 2,000 LEAs (including traditional public schools and charter schools) have already provided the requisite guarantee that its programs and services are, and will be, in compliance with Title VI and its implementing regulation,” the letter says.

Thurmond added in a statement, “Today, California affirmed existing and continued compliance with federal laws while we stay the course to move the needle for all students. As our responses to the United States Department of Education state and as the plain text of state and federal laws affirm, there is nothing unlawful about broad core values such as diversity, equity and inclusion. I am proud of our students, educators and school communities who continue to focus on teaching and learning, despite federal actions intended to distract and disrupt.”

California officials say that the federal government cannot change existing civil rights enforcement standards without going through formal rule-making procedures, which require public notice and comment.

Other states are taking a similar approach. In a letter to the DOE, Daniel Morton-Bentley, deputy commissioner and counsel for the New York State Education Department, wrote, “We understand that the current administration seeks to censor anything it deems ‘diversity, equity & inclusion.’ But there are no federal or State laws prohibiting the principles of DEI.”