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Barely Getting By

November 13th, 2014 by flanews

The economy is in much better shape today than five years ago, but as Matt Galka tells us, a new report from the United Way of Florida shows just how many of us are still barely getting by, and the numbers may surprise you.

Living paycheck to paycheck isn’t easy. But it’s the reality for nearly half of the state.  A new report from the Untied Way says more than 3 million households are struggling to get by. United Way Ted Florida President Ted Granger says the numbers are alarming.

“These are working people. 30% of the population in the state of Florida who are struggling to pay their bills. The other 15% are people who are under the poverty line,” said Granger.

The report says to get by on the basics like housing, child care, food, health care and transportation, you need to be well above the poverty line. You would need to be making just under $19,000 dollars to survive and save a little extra.  The poverty line is just over $11,000 bucks.

Granger says some long term solutions are simple.

“Providing transportation – transportation is a huge issue for these folks, and providing more infrastructure,” he said.

Rich Templin with the AFL-CIO labor group says they’ve been trying to tell lawmakers this for a while in their attempts to raise the state’s minimum wage.

“If the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation, it would be $10.75 an hour right now, if it had kept pace with the actual cost of living, it would be $18.75 an hour right now,” said Templin.

The states $7.93 minimum wage is above the federal level, and is expected to increase to just over $8 in 2015.  That’s about a dollar more a day in a 40 hour work week.

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