The number of working poor families in Connecticut has increased more than 30 percent in the past few years, according to a recently-released study.
The Working Poor Families Project, which conducted the study, is a nationwide initiative for middle-class prosperity. The group says that new U.S. Census figures from 2011 show a downward trend of Americans being unable to live comfortably, according to a recent article in the Day of New London.
While more than 10 million families in the country are categorized as working poor, an increase of 200,000 from the year before, Connecticut still has the fifth-lowest percentage of working poor among all U.S. states. However, the number of families struggling has risen five percentage points in four years to constitute 21 percent of the working population.
“Although many people are returning to work, they are often taking jobs with lower wages and less job security compared with the middle-class jobs they held before the economic downturn,” according to the report. Low-income working families earn less than twice the official U.S. poverty threshold, or $22,811 for a family of four in 2011.
The Campaign for a Working Connecticut, an advocacy group which formed this year, will be pushing lawmakers to increase the minimum wage and provide more funding for workforce training, according to the article.