Report: MD Working Families Still Struggling
Friday, February 7, 2014(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Working families in Maryland
continue to struggle to move ahead in an uncertain economy. That’s the
central
finding in a new report released yesterday by the Progressive Maryland
Education Fund and Maryland Center on Economic Policy, "The State of Working Maryland 2013". Nearly
600,000 Marylanders still live in poverty, despite the state’s 10 percent
poverty rate being significantly lower than the national rate of 15.7 percent.
And while union membership is associated with higher wages for workers, union
membership is steadily declining in Maryland, as it is across the nation.
Housing affordability remains a challenge for Maryland, as is unmanageable
student debt and the high cost of energy. “There’s no doubt that some
of
the findings in the State of Working Maryland 2013 are sobering,” says
Progressive Maryland Education Fund Executive Director Kate Planco Waybright.
“But there are policy options that our leaders can take right away to correct
the most troublesome findings. The General Assembly should pass reforms that
build Maryland’s middle class, such as policies that increase access to union
membership in Maryland and raise the minimum wage.”