Low Wages Bog Down State (editorial)
by January 6, 2003 12:00 am 60 views
A recent report by the Good Faith Fund and Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families, entitled “Boom, Bust & Beyond: The State of Working Arkansas,” provides an interesting look at where the state is today — both positive and negative.
The 36-page report, released in December under the two organizations’ joint effort, the Arkansas Working Families Project, explores how families fared during a decade that began with an economic boom and ended in a recession.
“Many Arkansas families saw large increases in their incomes during the period,” the report said. “In fact, most families saw their incomes increase over the past 10 years. The poorest of families saw a 34-percent increase.”
That’s the kind of thing we like to hear. On the negative side, however, “their average income was only $12,271, still well below the Arkansas Family Income Standard of $22,375 for a family of three.”
The report blames an Arkansas economy dependent on low-paying service-sector jobs. Over the past 10 years, the number of jobs available in the service sector increased 63 percent. According to the report, more than 107,000 jobs have become available in the service sector and 121,000 more jobs are expected to be available by 2008, but “most of them don’t pay enough for families to support their children,” the report said.
The report reinforces what most already know: Arkansans need improved access to early education and to work force education. Being able to compete for better jobs with higher wages is the best way to meet the needs of the family, the report says.
Nothing wrong with that conclusion. How to come up with the money remains the big question facing the state’s leaders.
How to Get There
We have a suggestion. Top priority should be given to pulling the trigger on some real incentives to lure high-wage, high-tech companies and startups to Arkansas — specifically Northwest Arkansas and the central part of the state. That’s when the University of Arkansas and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences will serve as the ultimate catalysts for transporting the state’s wages to the 21st Century.
Who in the General Assembly will be the first to help create real change? Business and community leaders in the two-county area should demand that local state legislators make that job one, or we will find someone else to send to Little Rock.