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| Maggie Barcellano plays with her three-year-old daughter, Zoe, at Lakeway City Park in Lakeway, Texas on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2014. Barcellano enrolled in the food stamps program to help save up for paramedic training while she works as a home health aide and raises her daughter. Working-age people now make up the majority in U.S. households that rely on food stamps, a switch from a few years ago when children and the elderly were the main recipients. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- In a first, working-age people now make up the majority in U.S.
households that rely on food stamps - a switch from a few years ago,
when children and the elderly were the main recipients.
Some
of the change is due to demographics, such as the trend toward having
fewer children. But a slow economic recovery with high unemployment,
stagnant wages and an increasing gulf between low-wage and high-skill
jobs also plays a big role. It suggests that government spending on the
$80 billion-a-year food stamp program - twice what it cost five years
ago - may not subside significantly anytime soon.
Food
stamp participation since 1980 has grown the fastest among workers with
some college training, a sign that the safety net has stretched further
to cover America's former middle class, according to an analysis of
government data for The Associated Press by economists at the University
of Kentucky. Formally called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance, or
SNAP, the program now covers 1 in 7 Americans.
The
findings coincide with the latest economic data showing workers' wages
and salaries growing at the lowest rate relative to corporate profits in
U.S. history.
President Barack Obama's State
of the Union address Tuesday night is expected to focus in part on
reducing income inequality, such as by raising the federal minimum wage.
Congress, meanwhile, is debating cuts to food stamps, with Republicans
including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., wanting a $4
billion-a-year reduction to an anti-poverty program that they say
promotes dependency and abuse.
Economists say having a job may no longer be enough for self-sufficiency in today's economy.
"A
low-wage job supplemented with food stamps is becoming more common for
the working poor," said Timothy Smeeding, an economics professor at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in income inequality.
"Many of the U.S. jobs now being created are low- or minimum-wage -
part-time or in areas such as retail or fast food - which means food
stamp use will stay high for some time, even after unemployment
improves."
The newer food stamp recipients
include Maggie Barcellano, 25, of Austin, Texas. A high school graduate,
she enrolled in college but didn't complete her nursing degree after
she could no longer afford the tuition.
Hoping
to boost her credentials, she went through emergency medical technician
training with the Army National Guard last year but was unable to find
work as a paramedic because of the additional certification and fees
required. Barcellano, now the mother of a 3-year-old daughter, finally
took a job as a home health aide, working six days a week at $10 an
hour. Struggling with the low income, she recently applied for food
stamps with the help of the nonprofit Any Baby Can, to help save up for
paramedic training.
"It's devastating,"
Barcellano said. "When I left for the Army I was so motivated, thinking I
was creating a situation where I could give my daughter what I know she
deserves. But when I came back and basically found myself in the same
situation, it was like it was all for naught."
Since
2009, more than 50 percent of U.S. households receiving food stamps
have been adults ages 18 to 59, according to the Census Bureau's Current
Population Survey. The food stamp program defines non-elderly adults as
anyone younger than 60.
As recently as 1998,
the working-age share of food stamp households was at a low of 44
percent, before the dot-com bust and subsequent recessions in 2001 and
2007 pushed new enrollees into the program, according to the analysis by
James Ziliak, director of the Center for Poverty Research at the
University of Kentucky.
By education, about 28
percent of food stamp households are headed by a person with at least
some college training, up from 8 percent in 1980. Among those with
four-year college degrees, the share rose from 3 percent to 7 percent.
High-school graduates head the bulk of food stamp households at 37
percent, up from 28 percent. In contrast, food stamp households headed
by a high-school dropout have dropped by more than half, to 28 percent.
The
shifts in food stamp participation come amid broader changes to the
economy such as automation, globalization and outsourcing, which have
polarized the job market. Many good-paying jobs in areas such as
manufacturing have disappeared, shrinking the American middle class and
bumping people with higher levels of education into lower-wage work.
An
analysis Ziliak conducted for the AP finds that stagnant wages and
income inequality play an increasing role in the growth of food stamp
rolls.
Taking into account changing family
structure, higher unemployment and policy expansions to the food stamp
program, the analysis shows that stagnant wages and income inequality
explained just 3.5 percent of the change in food stamp enrollment from
1980 to 2011. But from 2000 to 2011, wages and inequality accounted for
13 percent of the increase.
Several economists
say food stamp rolls are likely to remain elevated for some time.
Historically, there has been a lag before an improving unemployment rate
leads to a substantial decline in food stamp rolls; the Congressional
Budget Office has projected it could take 10 years.
"We
do not expect income inequality stabilizing or declining in the absence
of real wage growth or a significant reduction in unemployment and
underemployment problems," said Ishwar Khatiwada, an economist for the
Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University who reviewed
the Labor and Commerce departments' wage data.
Full-
and part-time workers employed year-round saw the fastest growth in
food stamp participation since 1980, making up 17 percent and 7 percent
of households, respectively. In contrast, the share of food stamp
households headed by an unemployed person has remained largely
unchanged, at 53 percent. Part-year workers declined in food stamp
share.
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