Issue: Economic Opportunity

Alabama has enjoyed great success in recent decades in ensuring that children and seniors have the health protection they need, according to a new Arise Citizens’ Policy Project report issued Tuesday as part of The State of Working Alabama 2014. But the state lags behind the nation when it comes to insuring young adults, nearly 30 percent of whom lack health coverage.

“Child care, construction and food service are essential jobs that are often low-paying, and the people who do that important work deserve the protection of health insurance,” ACPP policy director Jim Carnes said. “But without an expanded Medicaid program, many working Alabamians fall into a coverage gap. They make too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to be eligible for affordable coverage through the Health Care Marketplace.”

Key findings from the report include:

• Nearly one in seven Alabamians lacked health insurance in 2013.
• Alabama’s lower rate of uninsured residents was slightly lower than the national average, almost exclusively as a result of the state’s success in providing Medicaid and ALL Kids to low- and moderate-income children.
• The share of working-age adults without health insurance was almost identical in Alabama and the nation, while the rate of young uninsured adults exceeded the national rate.
• Nearly 100,000 Alabamians signed up for Marketplace health coverage in 2014, topping the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ enrollment goal for the state. Open enrollment for 2015 Marketplace coverage began Nov. 15 and continues until Feb. 15, 2015.
• More than 600,000 people in Alabama remain without insurance. Up to 342,000 of them could gain coverage under an expanded Medicaid program.

“We encourage anyone who doesn’t have health insurance to visit healthcare.gov and learn about their options,” Carnes said. “The Marketplace makes affordable coverage available for tens of thousands of Alabamians. Closing the coverage gap would insure hundreds of thousands more. It’s time for our state to take this important step toward a healthier, more secure Alabama for all.”

The widening income gap between the richest Alabamians and everyone else is reducing consumer spending and hurting the state’s economy, according to a new ACPP report released today as part of The State of Working Alabama 2014. Alabama is among the top half of states for the severity of its income inequality, and its income gap is increasing at one of the highest rates in the nation.

“People whose hard work and talent make our lives better deserve to be rewarded for their efforts,” ACPP executive director Kimble Forrister said. “But when income inequality becomes extreme, it hurts the economy and endangers our future.”

Key findings from the report include:

• Between 1979 and 2007, the top 1 percent of Alabamians saw income growth of 158.8 percent, while the incomes of everyone else grew on average by only 20.5 percent.
• Between 2009 and 2011, all income growth in Alabama accrued to the richest 1 percent of the state’s population.
• Between 2008 and 2012, the top fifth of Alabamians held more than half of the state’s total income, and the top 5 percent alone held 21.4 percent.

In 22 Alabama counties, the share of income held by the top 5 percent exceeded the state average. In six of those – Clarke, Conecuh, Jefferson, Lamar, Lowndes and Randolph – that share topped 24 percent.

Numerous state policies could reduce the worst effects of Alabama’s growing income inequality, Forrister said. Ending the state sales tax on groceries and replacing the revenue responsibly would help families make their paychecks go further, he said, as would closing the health coverage gap by expanding Medicaid to cover nearly 185,000 uninsured Alabama workers.

“Alabama should adopt policies that help everyone share in the benefits of economic growth,” Forrister said. “By investing now in education, transportation, affordable housing and other vital infrastructure, Alabama can pave the way for broadly shared prosperity for decades to come.”

This Labor Day will be a difficult one for many Alabama workers, according to a new ACPP report released today as part of The State of Working Alabama 2014. Unemployment remains high. Jobs have disappeared. Wages are stagnant. The wealth gap between the rich and everyone else has grown.

And trends in unemployment, job loss, wages and income inequality all suggest that the state will continue to feel the Great Recession’s effects for years to come.

Among the report’s key findings:

• Alabama’s unemployment rate remained among the nation’s highest at 7 percent in July 2014. Alabama is the only state whose unemployment rate is higher than it was in July 2013.
• Alabama has lost 5 percent of its non-farm jobs since 2007, more than 16 times worse than the national job loss rate of 0.3 percent. The losses have been particularly severe among construction jobs. Job losses from 2007 to 2011 topped 20 percent in some rural counties.
• Wages are stagnant. Alabama workers have seen a real wage increase of only 4 percent in the last decade, adjusted for inflation.
• Wage stagnation has fueled a dramatic increase in income inequality in Alabama, measured by the income gap between the very rich and the rest of the population. Between 2009 and 2011, the income of the richest 1 percent in Alabama increased by 4.3 percent while the average incomes of the rest fell by 2.9 percent. Alabama is in the top half of all states for income inequality, and its rate of increased inequality is one of the nation’s highest.

The report reveals, in stark terms, the systemic challenges that Alabama’s workers face as they strive to climb the economic ladder, ACPP executive director Kimble Forrister said. But he said the state can act now to reduce those barriers and to build a stronger foundation for future growth. “Investing in Alabama today will make it easier for more of our people to achieve the American dream tomorrow,” Forrister said. “Our leaders can and should create more high-paying jobs by expanding Medicaid, investing in infrastructure and supporting workers still struggling to recover from the recession.”

Many of the pathways Alabamians traditionally have used to get ahead have become more difficult to travel in the wake of the Great Recession, according to The State of Working Alabama 2011, a new Arise Citizens’ Policy Project report released today. Falling median household income, stagnating wages and soaring college costs have made it tougher to climb the economic ladder through hard work or education, the report finds.

ACPP executive director Kimble Forrister said the report reveals, in stark terms, many economic and systemic challenges that Alabama’s workers face in their efforts to create better lives. But he said the state can act now to reduce many of those barriers and to build a stronger foundation for future growth.

“Investing in Alabama today will make it easier for more of our people to achieve the American dream tomorrow,” Forrister said. “Education, health care and other public structures are the backbone of a strong economy, and our state must strengthen them to stay competitive in a fast-paced economy.”

A slightly lower unemployment rate was one of the few pieces of good news for Alabama in 2010, a year that left the state with higher poverty, more uninsured residents and lower median household income. The recession’s lingering effects hit especially hard among young Alabamians: One in four children lived in poverty in 2009-10, and nearly a quarter of Alabamians between the ages of 16 and 24 were unemployed.

Low- and middle-income workers face other challenges while trying to get ahead in Alabama, the report finds. The median cost of undergraduate tuition and fees at the state’s public four-year universities has nearly doubled since 2000-01, and partly as a result, the share of Alabamians with a four-year degree is falling further behind the national average. Alabama’s tax system also continues to require low- and middle-income residents to pay twice the share of their incomes in state and local taxes that the highest earners pay.

ACPP publishes The State of Working Alabama annually. The report uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau and other state and national sources to examine the economic condition of the state’s working families in 2011 along with historical trends.