Thread by @ulleryatintell

I'm working on a statewide project on the minimum wage and what it takes to get by in Pennsylvania. We've got organizations and politicians to speak on this, but what we need are the people willing to tell us how they make ends meet. bit.ly/399BCGG 1/12

The Keystone Research Center estimates that about 26% of Bucks County's workforce would see wages increase if the minimum wage were raised to $15 an hour. That's about 72,000 workers. Over 1.6 million would see an increase statewide. 2/12

This is a very complex issue, though. It's' one thing to ask, "will someone make more?" and quite a different thing to ask "are they making enough to survive?" Let's start with a basic need: shelter. 3/12

Renters occupied over 1.57 million housing units in PA in 2019. Renters made up about 16% of housing units in half the municipalities across the state, according to census estimates. About 22% of Bucks County's 250,522 units are renter occupied. 4/12

The median hourly wage of renter occupied units is actually pretty high in many areas. The median wage of a renter across all towns in PA is around $18.14. The bottom 25% make as much as $14 an hour. That sounds great at first, but it's just the first half a dire equation 5/12

Factoring in the hourly wage needed to cover the median rental values in those towns, nearly 62% of renter occupied homes, or 983,627 units, aren't covering rent in over 700 towns (urban and rural). These estimates are also all before the pandemic economic crisis. 6/12

Rent is a cost most can't control, so low income earners will often cut costs in other necessities like food. That means either going hungry, or using aid programs like SNAP or food pantries. There's still another problem though. bit.ly/3vSkL4J 7/12

SNAP poverty thresholds cap at 130% of the federal poverty threshold for each family size. A 3-person family is capped at $28,200 a year. The average renter makes about $11,000 more than that threshold in PA. Purple towns are where renters make less than the threshold. 8/12

In Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia, renters generally make more than that threshold. Even if we used the single-person threshold of $15,880 per year, it doesn't get much easier. A single person or a small family might not qualify for aid in this area 9/12

If this is starting to sound like you, then I'd like to talk to you. Please email me at [e-mail]. If this sounds like someone you know, please give them my email address and ask them to consider talking to me for this story. 10/12

Also, in case it comes up, here's FDR's statement on wage standards in 1933: It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. bit.ly/2NLGMBf 11/12

As always, data is analyzed using @PythonPr @matplotlib @geopandas in a @ProjectJupyter notebook. @threadreaderapp Unroll please. 12/12