There’s another measure today of the financial hardships suffered by people living in our area. The United Way has released a study finding that 41.7 percent of households in the commonwealth are living below its “ALICE” threshold.
ALICE stands for “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed”. It adds the 12.3 percent of people the government says are living below the poverty line to the 29.4 percent who are above the poverty line but still can’t afford basic household expenses. The study uses the cost of living for each county in the United States and data collected from the 2016 Census Bureau American Community Survey.
The local numbers are not glowing. Indiana County ranks 7th lowest, with 48.2 percent of its residents living below the ALICE threshold. Only Philadelphia, Potter, Fayette, Union, Mifflin, and Blair counties are worse. They’re all 50 percent or over, with Philadelphia the worst overall at 62 percent living below the ALICE threshold.
As for our neighbors, 45.4 percent of Jefferson County’s residents are below the ALICE threshold. Clearfield County is at 44.2 percent, Armstrong and Cambria are both at 39.9 percent, and Westmoreland is at 38.2 percent.
In the United States, 43 percent of people are living below the threshold.
Analysts say the ALICE level might be so high because wages are not keeping up with inflation, and even when they do, people are working fewer hours so the ALICE level is not impacted. Also, the economy has improved dramatically since 2016, so it’s possible that the percentages today might be different.
