Introduction

Self-Sufficiency in West Virginia Without Public or Private Assistance or Subsidies

How much money is needed by families throughout West Virginia to sustain themselves independent of others? The information in this report provides a new measure of how much income is required for a family of a particular structure in a particular location to satisfactorily meet its fundamental needs without public or private assistance.

Although there have been different ways of quantifying poverty over the years, the most notable measuring stick has been the federal poverty measure. Over time, however, as the definition of what constitutes a family has changed, the federal poverty measure has remained the same. Families’ needs for survival in the twenty-first century, compared to family necessities in 1960 when the federal measure was first implemented, have changed drastically. In addition, the federal poverty measure is the same for a family in Idaho as it is for a family in Maryland. While the federal measure has remained static over time, the data in this report provides a significant difference in the following areas:

The Self-Sufficiency Standard assumes that all adults work full-time and as a result, includes costs associated with employment.

The Standard takes into account that many expenses differ not only by family size and makeup, but also by the age of children.

The Standard incorporates regional and local variations in costs.

The Standard includes the net effect of taxes and tax credits.

The Standard is based on the costs of each basic need, determined independently, which allows each cost to increase at its own rate.

The resulting difference from these key components provides a measure for families that is not luxurious or comfortable, but not so low that it fails to adequately provide for a family. Self-sufficiency allows maintaining a standard of living that does not require choosing between basic necessities. The Standard is not endorsing an ideal of self-dependence in complete isolation. Community and governmental response to families struggling to attain sustainable wages should be encouraged as supportive of the goal of self-sufficiency.