SCRANTON — Fawn Contreras and her family find themselves in a situation familiar to many in Northeast Pennsylvania these days.
They’re making ends meet. There’s just not a lot of overlap.
“We’re starting to do better, but it’s still sometimes a struggle,” the married mother of two said.
On Friday, Contreras was among the guests as the University of Scranton and the Institute for Public Policy and Economic Development released their “Living Wage Report 2019,” a follow-up to their groundbreaking 2016 study on regional economic security issues.
The report concluded the living wage income need — or what someone must earn to meet essential basic needs and support a modest but dignified life — jumped markedly for families of all sizes and compositions in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties over the past three years.
For example, for a family of two adults and two children, with one adult working, the living wage rose from $44,056 in 2016 to $48,069 this year, an increase of 9.1%. For a single adult, the need increased 13.3% to $22,152.
Contreras, 31, who lives in Archbald with her husband, Raul, and their two daughters, 10 and 6, was featured in a short video that accompanied the release of the report as a member of the community who had experienced the wrong side of the living wage equation.
With she and her husband both now working — he’s a mechanic and she landed a position in May as youth services clerk for Valley Community Library — they are probably close to earning what would be considered a living wage, she said.
It wasn’t always that way.
“Our success has been a lot like a roller coaster — a lot of up and you get near the top, and then you come crashing down,” Contreras said.
With no college degree and few prospects, Contreras said she decided not to take a minimum-wage job where her earnings would be eaten up by child-care expense and instead became a Head Start volunteer. That volunteer work opened up opportunities that eventually led her to the library and what she called her “dream job.”
“We make the most of what we have,” she said.
The study found the increases in the region’s living wage income can be attributed to a range of economic factors.
However, Teri Ooms, executive director of the Institute for Public Policy and Economic Development, a Wilkes-Barre-based think tank funded by area colleges and universities, pointed to a 5.7% rise in the Consumer Price Index in 2018 as a major culprit. It included a significant 2.2% jump in inflation.
Several cost-of-living categories recorded major increases in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties between 2016 and 2019, she said.
The most significant was housing costs, which rose more than 20% during the period, but there were also hefty jumps in health care costs and miscellaneous other expenses, encompassing necessities like clothing, personal care items and housekeeping supplies.
As a consequence, even though regional unemployment is down since 2016, more households are earning incomes beneath the living wage and may find it difficult to pay for essential needs, the report concluded.
Julie Schumacher Cohen, director of the university’s Office of Community and Government Relations, said resources are available for low- and moderate-income households that do not earn a living wage. However, some families find themselves in a bind because they earn too much to qualify for assistance but not enough to achieve economic security.
“The benefits-cliff effect is real. ... Benefits swiftly decline but economic stability is still out of reach,” she said.
The report makes four recommendations:
Raise the Pennsylvania and/or federal minimum wage to foster and maintain family-sustaining jobs and further increase economic development and workforce activities.
Support federal tax credits and potential expanded state tax credits to assist with basic costs for low-income families.
Provide affordable housing by identifying and implementing a range of strategies that address the necessity of economic development and the needs of low-income residents.
Expand access to existing social safety net programs.
Contreras said while things are looking up for her family — she and her husband bought a home and they now have health care through his employer — they both still drive “beaters” and she is just starting to pay off her student loans.
Their life doesn’t include a lot of frills, she said.
“We’ll keep striving to do better,” Contreras said.
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