We’re excited to provide a link to the 2020 Self-Sufficiency Standard for South Carolina.
Here are a few snippets to get your interest:
The Self-Sufficiency Standard is a measure of income adequacy that is based on the costs of basic needs for working families: housing, child care, food, health care, transportation, and miscellaneous items, as well as the cost of taxes and the impact of tax credits.
Selected Findings
The Standard varies by family type; that is, by how many adults and children are in a family and the age of each child.
One adult living in Anderson County needs an hourly wage of $10.06 ($21,246 annually) to meet basic needs. For families with children, the amount needed to cover basic needs increases considerably. If the single adult has a preschooler and a school-age child, the amount necessary to be economically secure more than doubles, increasing to $21.87 per hour ($46,198 annually) in order to cover the cost of child care, a larger housing unit, and increased food and health care costs. See Table 4 on page 55.
In South Carolina, the amount needed to be economically self-sufficient varies considerably by geographic location.
For instance, the amount needed to make ends meet for one adult and one preschooler varies from $13.80 per hour in Orangeburg County to $22.94 per hour in Charleston County, or from 169% of the federal poverty guidelines to 281% of the federal poverty guidelines for a family of two. See Figure A on page 7.
Even more challenging, over the last four years, from 2016 to 2020, a single adult’s expenses for housing, food, transportation and healthcare has increased by 16.5%; it rose 21.5% for a 2-adult household.
Click here to download the 2020 Self Sufficiency Standard for SC