Plight of Working Families in Mississippi Revealed in New Report by Jesuit Social Research Institute
BY ISN STAFF | September 9, 2016
A new report issued by Loyola University New Orleans’ Jesuit Social Research Institute (JSRI) centers around the plight of the worker and working families in Mississippi. The State of Working Mississippi 2016 report reveals that in 2014 17.7 percent of working Mississippi families lived below the poverty line, more than 100,000 working families did not have healthcare, and the median wage of African-American workers was just 72 percent of the median wage for white workers.

Cotton Harvest
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In this revealing new report, modeled after the Economic Policy Institute’s State of Working America series, JSRI researchers show how these issues span and affect communities. The researchers share key findings, as well as historical and current trends and data — and provide recommendations on how to begin to bridge the gaps.

Oil well laborers
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JSRI officially released the State of Working Mississippi 2016 report and interactive website on September 8, 2016 at Steps of Action, a Biloxi-based advocacy group striving to advance social justice along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The report can be found here.
The State of Working Mississippi 2016 report was made possible by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., Hope Policy Institute of Jackson, the Women’s Foundation of Mississippi, and the Mississippi Center for Justice also provided assistance in developing the data in this report and fashioning its policy recommendations.

Low investment in public education effects the entire Mississippi economy
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“Mississippi is a vibrant state with economic potential. This holistic report is not simply an economic report or analysis of the plight of the worker and working families in Mississippi―it also provides a roadmap for changing the social environment,” Donovan said. “By making strategic public investments and policy changes, Mississippi leaders have an opportunity to improve the economic reality for the state, its workers, and their families.”
Key findings from the State of Working Mississippi 2016 report include:
- Older Mississippians are more likely to be working today than in 2000, while the number of young people in the state’s labor force has declined.
- Mississippi’s relatively low investment in public education has negative impacts on the state’s economy as a whole and places low-income children at a disadvantage compared to higher income children whose families can afford private education.
- White and African-American workers have nearly the same rate of participation in labor force but there are large racial disparities in wages and total household income.
- Jobs in high-paying industries such as construction and manufacturing are still below what they were before the Great Recession, while the number of jobs in low-wage industries such as food service and personal care occupations have increased, leaving a higher percentage of Mississippi workers in jobs that pay below-poverty wages.
- Growing income inequality has left low and middle class workers without wage increases since the Great Recession, while the highest earning workers have enjoyed significant growth in wages.
- Compensation for workers in Mississippi has not kept pace with increases in corporate profits or worker productivity.
Specific recommendations derived from the findings of this study include:
- Fully fund Mississippi public education, from pre-kindergarten to high school
- Increase access to childcare assistance through TANF funding
- Increase funding for need-based tuition assistance for higher education
- Expand Medicaid
- Raise the minimum wage
- Establish a state Earned Income Tax Credit
- Reduce or eliminate the sales tax on groceries
- Increase state tax revenues without place additional burden on the poor
- Local government action to improve economic justice
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