Post by pavel on Mar 17, 2016 22:55:07 GMT -6
Low-income families, immigrants and workers of color are worse off in Louisiana than anywhere else in the nation, Loyola University researchers said Thursday (March 17).
The inaugural "JustSouth" index purports to measure social justice. It ranked Louisiana dead last on measures of poverty, racial disparity and exclusion -- "a grim picture," Jesuit Social Research Institute policy specialist Jeanie Donovan said.
The other Gulf states were almost as bad. Alabama placed 48th, Texas 49th and Mississippi 50th. Florida had the highest ranking in the region, 41st place. Vermont scored the highest, followed by New Hampshire and Hawaii. The study was funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Among the problems in Louisiana:
The inaugural "JustSouth" index purports to measure social justice. It ranked Louisiana dead last on measures of poverty, racial disparity and exclusion -- "a grim picture," Jesuit Social Research Institute policy specialist Jeanie Donovan said.
The other Gulf states were almost as bad. Alabama placed 48th, Texas 49th and Mississippi 50th. Florida had the highest ranking in the region, 41st place. Vermont scored the highest, followed by New Hampshire and Hawaii. The study was funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Among the problems in Louisiana:
- The average low-income household earned only $11,156 in 2014. The institute calculates that a two-person family needs to earn "$45,840 a year to afford basic necessities," Donovan said.
- Almost all low-income households spent more than 30 percent of their monthly income on rent.
- Minority workers earned, on average, four fifths what their white peers made.
- One third of poor families lacked health insurance.
- Just 59 percent of immigrants in Louisiana had health insurance, and it could not all be explained by immigration status.