Good news for Utah kids: U.S. poverty rate falls for first time in decade

The nation's poverty rate fell for the first time in a decade to 9.8 percent, a new census survey says.

And real median household income rose for the second year in a row, according to the 2007 Current Population Survey, released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Nationally, the real median household income was $48,201 in 2006, an increase of 0.7 percent, or $356.

However, advocates for working families point out that individual earnings dropped by just over 1 percent for both men and women. The median income for men who worked full-time and year-round was $42,261 and was $32,515 for women. And the number of people who lack health insurance rose to 47 million, or 15.8 percent of the population.

"In a climate like this, too many workers lack the bargaining power to claim fair share," said Jared Bernstein, director of the Living Standards Program for the Economic Policy Institute.

Bernstein says members of American households collectively worked about 100 hours more in 2006 than in 2003. That meant about 3,100 hours of work per household in 2006.

In Utah, male workers are seeing a similar decline in wages as is evident on a national scale, says Juliette Tennert, the state's top demographer. However, unlike men, Utah's women saw no decline in wages.

"In general, we are following the trend of inflation outpacing wage growth," Tennert said. "We see the same thing on the national level."

However, Utah's median household income is rising and is higher than the national median. Utah's median household income was $55,619, according to a two-year average for 2005-06 in the Current Population Survey.

Tennert said Utah's strong economy has created a very low unemployment rate, which may mean that more people, particularly women, are entering the workforce.

Bill Tibbetts, anti-hunger director for Crossroads Urban Center, said he would have liked to have seen better improvements in the numbers, given Utah's low unemployment rate.

"Apparently a lot of working families are still struggling to make ends meet," he said, pointing to the rising cost of food, rent and public transportation.

Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities, said there were some bright spots, such as the number and percentage of the elderly population in poverty, age 65 and older, which fell from 10.1 percent in 2005 to 9.4 percent, or 3.4 million people, in 2006.