Indicator: 42 - Jobs That Pay a Livable Wage

Why This Is Important

If people are not earning a high enough wage to support themselves and their non-income
earning dependents (such as children, spouses, or elders), they must either live without some
basic necessities or they must depend on some type of public assistance. Each of those
alternatives has a negative impact on the economy. Jobs that pay below a livable wage, on
balance, are not likely contributing to economic growth, and they ultimately result in higher
taxes for Maine businesses and citizens.

 

 

Where We Stand

In 2002, about 66% of all jobs in Maine paid what the Maine Economic Growth Council
considers to be an annual livable wage for that year ($22,089 for a family of two). This
percentage has remained basically unchanged since 1996.

 

Data Sources and Context

The data for this indicator comes from the Maine Economic Growth Council’s Measures
of Growth 2004; summary and analysis of data for that publication is done by the Maine
Development Foundation. The Foundation developed the data by analyzing Maine
Department of Labor data. This performance measure considers a livable wage to be 85%
above the poverty line (established by the U.S. Department of Labor) wage for a family of
two. In this way, it is directly related to the number of Maine people living in poverty. The
family size of two was chosen because roughly half of all Maine people are employed (each
job in Maine supports roughly two people). The number of livable-wage jobs is calculated
by looking at the average annual wages paid in each Maine industry (451 of them defined
by a 3-digit Standard Industrial Code) and simply adding up the number of jobs in those
industries that pay above the livable wage. This number is then divided into the total number
of jobs to arrive at the percentage of jobs that pay a livable wage. The data is available
on-line at http://mdf.org/megc.