South By North Strategies, Ltd.

From the latest edition of the North Carolina Living Standard calculated by the N.C. Budget and Tax Center …

This 2010 version of the Living Income Standard finds that the North Carolina family of two adults and two children must earn $48,814 annually—an amount equal to 221 percent of the federal poverty level—to afford the actual costs of seven essential expenses: housing, food, childcare, health care, transportation, taxes and other necessities (like clothing, personal care items, household supplies, school supplies and local telephone service). To meet that level, the adults in the average four-person family would need to earn a combined $23.47 per hour and work 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year.

From the report’s policy recommendations …

But public policy can and should do more than subsidize low-wage work. Public policy should support the creation of quality jobs that meet, at a minimum, the living income standard and provide benefits such as retirement savings and health insurance. State policymakers should set wage and benefit standards at the living income standard and require businesses to meet these standards if they seek to access taxpayer dollars through economic development subsidies.