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Census: People working more to make ends meet

By TOM SPOTH, Sun Staff
Lowell Sun

The U.S. Census Bureau reported last week that median household income in 2005 rose 1.1 percent to $46,326, the first such increase since 1999.

Good news, right?

Maybe not.

The agency also found that median earnings for men 15 and older declined by 1.8 percent to $41,386; women's earnings fell by 1.3 percent, to $31,858.

Experts say this discrepancy means people may be working multiple jobs, or more members of households may be entering the workplace, in order to make ends meet.

"In order to pay for rent, food and child care -- all the things they need to live every day -- people find their jobs just don't support them," said Karen Frederick, executive director of Lowell-based social-service agency Community Teamwork Inc. "It's not a living wage."

Frederick said many of CTI's clients, and even some of its employees, have had to take second jobs.

Bruce Akashian, assistant director at the Career Center of Lowell, said he often meets people who lose high-paying jobs, take a position for a lower wage, and end up adding a part-time job to supplement their earnings and maintain their standard of living.

"A lot of those $15-to-$25-an-hour jobs are now $10-to-$20," Akashian said, adding that many of those are in manufacturing. "You've got to figure out a way to make up the money."

Ted Clark, a 63-year-old Billerica resident, has had to absorb an even steeper drop in his income. Clark lost a well-paying job as a software engineer in 2001 during the high-tech downturn, and later accepted a job filling propane tanks at O'Connor True Value Hardware, for about one-fifth of his prior salary.

Clark's wife, Cindy, worked two nursing jobs for some time to help support the family of five.

Ted Clark now says he has been out of work for so long that his technical skills are out of date, and he can't even get interviews with software companies anymore. He's on an extended leave from the hardware store with a foot injury.

The Clarks sold their house and are now renting. They're scraping by on Ted's small pension and Cindy's paycheck, but Ted Clark said he and Cindy will likely leave Massachusetts as soon as their youngest son graduates from high school. (He's a junior.)

"We'll move somewhere where the cost of living is a little more reasonable," he said.

Akashian said extra income sometimes comes from a spouse who has to find a job to pick up the slack.

"We don't see too many ... married families where (one) person is at home," he said. "Those days are kind of over."

Obtaining financial security is becoming increasingly costly in other areas of people's lives, said Charley Richardson, director of UMass Lowell's Labor Extension Program.

Rising household income is "not a reflection of an improving economy from the perspective of working people," Richardson said.

"More people are having to work more hours to earn the same amount of money," he explained. "There's an increase in forced overtime, people working 12-hour shifts or working more than one job. These are all disastrous trends for society, for communities, for families."

Tom Spoth's e-mail address is tspoth@lowellsun.com.