Wednesday, September 21, 2016
By Andrew Bradley
contact: abradley@incap.org
New
state-level data from the U.S. Census American Community Survey show
improvements in Indiana's poverty rate, household incomes and health insured
rates, but some metrics did not match national gains in 2015. While Indiana
made progress this year, too many missed policy opportunities have left Indiana
falling further behind other states, including dropping two spots relative to
other states in both child poverty and median household incomes since 2014.
In
2015, 933,181 Hoosiers lived below the poverty line, or 14.5% of the state's
population, a decrease from 15.2% in 2014. This is welcome news for the 41,037
fewer Hoosiers in poverty, and positioned the state at number 26th overall for
individuals in poverty, down from 24th. Improvements in poverty rates in 2015
were most dramatic for black (28.4%) and Hispanic (27%) individuals, down from
32% and 28.7% in 2014 respectively, as well as 12.2% in 2015 down from 12.6% in
2014 for white individuals. Indiana's poverty rate is still above its 2007
(pre-recession) rate of 12.3%, suggesting that for the poorest Hoosiers, the
state hasn't fully recovered from the recession. This also seems evident from
the fact that just over half of 16 to 64-year-olds in poverty worked either
full-time or part-time year round.
More
than one in three Hoosiers continued to be low-income (including those below
the poverty line) in 2015; 2,142,960 Hoosiers lived below 200 percent of the
federal poverty line (a basic measure of economic self-sufficiency) in 2015,
down from 2,219,443 in 2014. This includes the 1,209,779 Hoosiers between 100
and 200% of the federal poverty line in 2015, often those who are working and making
too much to receive aid, but not enough to afford basic needs. When compared to
just before the recession in 2007, there are 322,914 more low-income residents
in Indiana, and despite recent improvements, the percent of low-income Hoosiers
is still above pre-recession levels (29.6% in 2007 to 33.4% in 2015).
Indiana's
uneven poverty decrease was most apparent among some of its most vulnerable and
disadvantaged populations. More than one in five Hoosier children (20.9%)
continue to live in poverty, as Indiana did not see a statistically significant
decrease in its child poverty rate of 21.5% in 2014. The U.S. rate dropped
significantly from 21.7% in 2014 to 20.7% in 2015and is now just below
Indiana's rate. Consequently, Indiana's child poverty ranking rose two spots
within the past year compared to other states, from 23rd in child poverty in
2014 to 21st in 2015. Indiana also saw higher child poverty rates among certain
racial and ethnic groups in 2015. Comparing Indiana to the U.S. for children age
birth to 17, poverty rates are 41.7% (36.4% U.S.) for black children, 36%
(30.5% U.S.) for Hispanic or Latino children and 13.9% (12.5% U.S.) for white
children. In addition, Indiana's ranking for the highest rate of elder
poverty (age 65 and over) moved from 47 to 41 as the rate increased to 7.2% in
2015 from 7% in 2014. These data suggest that there needs to be more focus on
the issues causing poverty among children and the elderly.
Median
household incomes increased significantly in Indiana, improving from $49,484 in
2014 to $50,532 in 2015. However, the U.S. increased from $53,713 in 2014 to
$55,775, an increase of$2,062. Accordingly, Indiana fell further behind on the
state rankings for median household incomes, dropping from 34th in 2014 to
36th in 2015. Indiana's increase of $1,048 was the lowest among all of its
neighbors and was second lowest in the Census' 12-state Midwest region, ahead
of only Iowa. While these increases in median household income are a promising
start, again we have yet to make up ground lost in the recession. The median
household income in 2007 was $47,448, and this income had the same buying power
as $54,238.81 in 2015 dollars, about $3,750 less than 2015's official median
household income.[1] Racial disparities continue to plague Indiana
incomes, with white households making a median $52,659, compared to $31,639
among African-American households and $41,020 among Hispanic or Latino
households.
The
intersection of race, ethnicity, and gender continued to play an outsized role
in Indiana earnings in 2015. Median earnings for full-time, year round male
workers in Indiana were $47,092 in 2015, while the median earnings for
women was $35,753, or about 76 cents to the male dollar. Black and Hispanic or
Latino women earned still less: just $31,922 and $26,870 respectively in median
earnings for full time workers. This pay gap may help to explain why 16.2% of
Hoosier women live in poverty as compared to 12.9% of men, a poverty gap of
3.3%. While the percentage of both women and men in poverty has gone down, that
gap has actually widened since 2014, when it was 3.1%. Policy work will be
needed to mitigate these disparities in both poverty and income levels.
Progress
on Indiana's educational attainment rates worsened slightly since 2014, with
the rate of adults over 25 with less than a high school degree increasing from
11.6% to 11.8%; the rate of high school graduates holding steady at 34.3%; and
the rate of those with post-secondary education falling slightly from 54.2% to
53.9%. The state ranked #32 in the percentage of high school graduates (or
equivalent) 25 years old or older in 2015, down from #31 in 2014. Twenty-five
percent of those who failed to graduate from high school lived in poverty in
2015, compared to 11.9% among high school graduates, 10% of those with some
college but no degree, and 3.8% among those with a bachelor's degree. Policies
that support quality career pathways that meet Hoosiers where they are on the
learning continuum and move them to the next phase are critical, both for
Indiana's economic recovery and if the state is to meet its "big
goal" for higher educational attainment.
A
bright spot for Indiana was the continuing improvement in health insurance
rates due to the state adopting Medicaid expansion through the Affordable Care
Act and the state's Healthy Indiana 2.0 program. In 2015, 90.4% of Hoosiers had
health insurance, a significant increase from 88.1% in 2014 and nearly matching
the national rate of 90.6%. Indiana's uninsured rates have also declined
significantly to 9.6% in 2015 from 11.9% in 2014. However, the state's rate of
uninsured children at 6.7% was still well above the national rate of 4.8% in
2015, and did not decline significantly from 7.2% as the U.S. rate did from 6%
in 2014. Generally, though, this is encouraging progress.
The
effect of Indiana's policy choices was reflected in data regarding work support
programs' impact on low-income families. In 2007 - before the recession - 2.3%
of Hoosiers received public cash assistance to help make ends meet when
earnings fell short. In spite of the fact that we have not yet fully recovered,
Indiana actually has a lower percentage (1.8%) of individuals on cash
assistance now. This is in part because the eligibility thresholds for the cash
assistance program are a set value and are not indexed to either the poverty
level or the Consumer Price Index. Hoosier families utilizing SNAP nutrition
assistance were likely to be working families, and often in poverty and/or with
disabled family members. In 2015, 77.6% of Hoosier SNAP households had one or
more worker, and only 22.3% had no worker in past 12 months. Also, 53.9% were
below poverty level, and 47.5% had one or more member with disability, with a
median income $18,369. However, Indiana saw a percentage point decline in SNAP
participation at more than three times the national rate, despite a smaller
decrease in poverty. Indiana SNAP usage dropped from 12.8% in 2014 to 11.5% in
2015, a 1.3 percentage point decline, compared to a national drop of just 0.4
points, from 13.2% in 2014 to 12.8% 2015. Part of this outsized decline might
be explained by Indiana's choice to end its so-called "Able Bodied Adults
Without Dependents" waiver before many other states did. The resultant
decrease in SNAP rolls would show up in Indiana's data before it did in the
national average.
The
welcome news of lower poverty and increased income combined with the reality
that Indiana's gains trail the national average points to the missed
opportunities of Indiana's policymakers to raise incomes, improve job
quality, and support effective education and skills training. "Let's take
these small gains as a positive step, but Indiana shouldn't be satisfied until
policymakers more fully meet the needs of working families," said Senior
Policy Analyst Andrew Bradley. "The national recovery is reaching Indiana
families at half-strength. Hoosiers must hold policymakers accountable to take
action to make up the difference."
[1] Calculated with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI
Inflation Calculator.
