Page 10 - Sonoma County Gazette Janaury 2019

JOBS cont’d from age 1
share of middle-class jobs. Conversely, the high-tech sector directly produces a large number of high-wage jobs while indirectly creating a mix of high and low-wage jobs,” the report continues.
Report Predicts Ongoing Affordability Crisis
Jesús Guzmán, the report’s author, is a chair of the North Bay Labor Center’s board of directors. “The State of Working Sonoma” is the latest in a series of reports published by the Living Wage Coalition exploring how different Sonoma County residents are experiencing a changing economy, according to Guzmán.
Between 2005 and 2016, the portion of residents working in low wage jobs – defined as below $16.10 an hour, or two-thirds of the median wage – increased from 28 to 33 percent of the population.
Fueled by Economic Divergence
Between 2014 and 2024, 83% of new jobs in the county’s top ten employment fields are expected to pay less than $15 per hour, with a median wage of $13.09 per hour.
“I think the findings show that although the recession officially ended in 2010, there are still a lot of people feeling the effects of it,” Guzmán said during a speech about the report in November.
Before the 2017 wildfires, many households were already “burdened” by rent and mortgage payments, meaning they spent more than 30 percent of their wages on housing.
Affordable Housing... At a time of slow wage growth for the county’s lowest earners, housing costs have continued to rise, increasing the economic burden on low and middle-income families still further.
The Hourglass Economy Continues...In 2005, New Economy, Working Solutions (NEWS), a now defunct nonprofit, published a report with very similar projections, outlining the root causes of the “hourglass economy.”
For low income families, the numbers are stark. In 2016, 85.7 percent of renting households with an income below $25,000 per year, 71.5 percent of households making between $25,000 and $50,000, and 31.7 percent of households with a median income of $50,000 to $75,000
“A disturbing chain of causation that begins with the polarization of the job market, leads to a sharp spike in income inequality, and ultimately results in the paradox of growing working poverty despite rapid economic growth,” the 2005 report explains.
A worker can earn an almost $5 hourly wage premium for
jobs outside of Sonoma County, we can conclude that out- commuting is largely explained by the wage-premium. We find that the top occupations for out-commuters have an hourly wage range of $15.32 to $55.22. Eight out of ten workers in these top occupations earn more than $20 an hour; one in two earn more than $30 an hour.
were considered rent burdened. Between 2007 and 2014, the county and cities issued permits
Many of the trends shown in
the 2005 report have continued.
Adjusted for inflation, the bottom
ten percent of Sonoma County
workers have seen their wages
drop by 14 percent since the
1970s while the top ten percent of
earners have seen their incomes
increase by 26 percent, according
to the 2018 report. The wages
of the middle forty percent
of workers have remained
stagnant during the same time
period. 12%
Then the county lost 5,130 homes in the 2017 fires, worsening the problem further.
for just 41 percent of the housing units called for by Association of Bay Area Governments, not nearly enough to offset regional job growth and rising costs.
45% For instance, Latino Marin
“The past is clear: Fire produces gentrification,” Geographer Mike Davis told the Los Angeles Times in December. “We are going to
see this play out again and again, and it’s just a taste of what will happen with a major earthquake.”
families are the most likely
to be stuck in a condition of
working poverty – defined as 19% a household with an income S.F. below the poverty rate, $50,200
per year as of 2016, despite
having at least one family
member working.
3%
In 2016, forty percent of
Latino families were stuck in
working poverty, compared
with 20.1 percent of black families and 10.7 percent of white families in the county.
Jobs With Justice suggests a package of legislative changes to ease the economic burden on some of the region’s lowest earners.
Top Out-Commuter Desinations for Work
“The failure of wages to rise in tandem with spiraling rents and housing costs, the sharp decline of funding for affordable housing, and the destruction of 5 percent of the county’s housing stock during the 2017 Tubbs fire are the root causes of a near catastrophic affordable housing crisis and the displacement of thousands of
low income residents,” the report concludes.
Racial Disparity... In Napa Sonoma County, a person’s race
1%
The number of displaced residents has yet to be calculated, but academics predict that the fires will displace residents,
most likely the region’s poorest workers.
is increasingly a predictor of their place in the economy.
3% 3%
6% Alameda
3%
10 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 1/19
Since 2005, the Latino population has grown by 35 percent, currently making up 27 percent of the county’s population, according to the report.
“These recommendations include a region-wide $15 minimum wage, rent control and just cause eviction protections for tenants, and increasing the real estate transfer tax on the sale of high-end home to fund affordable housing,” the report concludes.