National Equity Atlas Webinar Archive

The National Equity Atlas team and partners host webinars on a regular basis to share new data, indicators, and functionalities and to highlight ways of using Atlas data to advance inclusive growth. Below are our webinar archives, organized chronologically by year.

2017

Using Data to Support Organizing and Policy Advocacy: 2017 Renter Week of Action (December 7, 2017) This webinar highlights how data supported and amplified 2017 #RenterWeekofAction efforts in which thousands of people in dozens of cities across the country held actions and assemblies to demand better protections for renters. The National Equity Atlas team partnered with Right to the City Alliance to support these local mobilizations by creating 38 fact sheets highlighting renter economic power and what cities gain by ensuring renter affordability.

Targeted Strategies to Reduce Employment Inequality (March 24, 2017) This webinar highlights findings from the policy brief, Race, Place, and Jobs: Reducing Employment Inequality in America’s Metros, paired with example of effective jobs strategies being implemented by the Northside Funders Group in Minneapolis and the Network for Economic Opportunity in New Orleans.

Beyond a People-of-Color Majority: U.S. Demographic Projections to 2050 (February 15, 2017) This webinar looks at the changing demographics of the U.S. beyond 2044, the year in which the nation will be majority people-of-color, providing a live demo of four indicators that include updated demographic projections to 2050: People of color, Race/ethnicity, Population growth rates, and Contribution to growth: People of color.

2016

Exploring New Neighborhood Maps Added to the Atlas (November 2, 2016) This webinar explores new mapping breakdowns by four indicators (People of color, Race/ethnicity, Unemployment, and Disconnected youth); how to create your own custom maps; and how you can use them to advance equitable growth strategies.

Special Preview: Neighborhood Mapping on the Atlas (October 6, 2016)­ This webinar offered a special preview of new maps will allow users to understand how selected equity indicators vary across neighborhoods within a city or region and can help inform targeted strategies and investments.

3 Ways to Use the New Chart Downloads (September 1, 2016)­ Spotlighting new gender breakdowns for three indicators (Working poor, disconnected youth, and Education levels and job requirements), this webinar describes three simple ways you can use chart downloads available in the Atlas to advance equity in your community.

Explore New Data on Immigrants in the National Equity Atlas (August 8, 2016) This webinar offers tips for accessing disaggregated data in the Atlas to assess how immigrants are fairing in your community, and to develop strategies for immigrant integration and inclusion in your community.

Explore New Equity Atlas Indicators on Poverty and Working Poor (July 12, 2016) This webinar reviews two indicators available on the Atlas - Poverty and Working poor- and further explores policy strategies that can advance racial economic inclusion and equitable growth in your community.

Introducing the National Equity Atlas Data and Policy Tool (June 22, 2016) This webinar features a live demonstration of the Atlas for the grantees of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

Exploring New Equity Indicators for Detailed Racial Ethnic Subgroups (May 26, 2016) This webinar reviews detailed racial/ethnic breakdowns to several economic opportunity indicators available on the Atlas, including: Unemployment, Wages: Median, Wages: $15/Hour, Disconnected Youth, Educational Levels, and Homeownership.

2014-2015

Data Tools for Policy Change: Paid Family Leave Policies to Advance Health Equity and Build an Inclusive Economy (December 14, 2015) This webinar was presented by PolicyLink, diversitydatakids.org, and Family Values @ Work, highlighting family and medical leave indicators available on diversitydatakids.org that underscore the intersection of public health and work-family policies as well as the importance of rigorous data on state-level access to family and medical leave.

The National Equity Atlas: New Equity Data for the 100 Largest Cities (September 30, 2015) This webinar highlights the release of data available for the largest 100 cities in the nation to help city leaders champion policies and strategies to counter deepening inequality and build “all-in cities” where all residents—especially those who’ve long been excluded—can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential.

Introducing the National Equity Atlas (December 9, 2014)­ This webinar introduces the National Equity Atlas, a first-of-its-kind online resource for data and policy ideas to build an equitable economy in your region, state, and nationwide.

Data Tools for Change: The Child Opportunity Index (March 18, 2015) This webinar highlights the Child Opportunity Index – a tool from diversitydatakids.org and the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity- and how, in conjunction with other neighborhood-level indicators of wellbeing, can arm leaders with data to advance cross-sector efforts centered around child health equity.

Tools for Social Change: The National Equity Atlas (January 28, 2015) This webinar, co-hosted with the National Committee for Responsible Philanthropy, describes the equity framework that undergirds the Atlas, offers a tour of the Atlas, and shares examples of how foundations can employ equity data and policy strategies to foster inclusive growth.

Chart of the Week: Breaking Down Education Data for the API Community in Los Angeles Shows Stark Education Gaps

 

To add equity data to the national dialogue about growth and prosperity, every week the National Equity Atlas team posts a new chart from the Equity Atlas related to current events and issues.

Disaggregating data to understand the diversity of experiences and outcomes within large populations is critical for crafting policies to build an equitable economy. In honor of the 40th anniversary of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, this week’s chart examines the vast differences in educational attainment among the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community in the Los Angeles metro area.

Asian and Pacific Islanders are a large and growing demographic in the Los Angeles region and make up 15 percent of the population. By 2020, the LA area is projected to have the fourth largest API population among the largest 150 metros in terms of the API share of the total population (after Honolulu, San Jose, and San Francisco). Between 2000 and 2010, the API community had the fastest population growth among all groups, increasing 23 percent to nearly 1.9 million residents (the Latino population had the second largest rate of growth at 11 percent).

With API communities driving growth in the region, ensuring that API workers have the skills and education needed for the jobs of the future is essential for a strong and prepared regional workforce. By common measures of social and economic success, the API community often fares very well. However, looking at the API community as a whole obscures important differences and masks challenges faced by certain subgroups.

By 2020, an estimated 44 percent of jobs in California will require at least an Associate’s degree. Comparable with the national average, 62 percent of Asian and Pacific Islanders in the LA metro area hold at least an Associate’s degree, signaling that overall this community possesses the skills to meet the demands of the changing economy. Although this figure is above average, there are wide disparities in educational attainment: Only 21 percent of working-age people with Samoan ancestry, 27 percent with Cambodian ancestry, 31 percent with Other Pacific Islander ancestry, 34 percent with Laotian ancestry, and 36 percent with Native Hawaiian ancestry hold at least an Associate’s degree. By comparison, 58 percent of White, 37 percent of Native American, 35 percent of Black, and 17 percent of Latino working-age adults in the LA metro area hold at least an Associate’s degree.

America's future jobs will require ever-higher levels of skills and education, but our education and job training systems are not adequately preparing all workers—particularly those growing as a share of the workforce—to succeed in the knowledge-driven economy. Closing wide and persistent racial gaps in educational attainment will be key to building a strong workforce that is prepared for the jobs of the future. Important strategies include creating cradle-to-career pipelines for vulnerable youth and investing in universal pre-K, reforming harsh, “zero tolerance” school discipline policies to keep youth in school and on track to graduate, implementing sector-focused workforce training and placement programs that connect workers to good jobs, ensuring access to higher education for immigrant students by providing in-state tuition rates regardless of immigrant status, and increasing access to financial aid or scholarships. For more on these strategies please visit the National Equity Atlas here.

Additional indicators, analyses, and resources for the API community can be found at AAPI Data, Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC), and Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC).

 

 

 

Chart of the Week: Rent Burden and Racial Equity in the Bay Area

To add equity data to the national dialogue about growth and prosperity, every week the National Equity Atlas team posts a new chart from the Equity Atlas related to current events and issues.

When skyrocketing rents force individuals and families to spend an increasingly larger share of their income on housing, it doesn’t just strain household budgets, it can limit growth for the entire region and exacerbate existing racial inequalities. This week, we are highlighting this interplay between housing, economic growth, and racial equity by looking at the Bay Area, where rising housing costs and stagnant wages have hit low-income communities and communities of color hardest, making it difficult for many residents to care for their families, contribute to the local economy, or invest in their future.

Though the Bay Area has never been a low-cost housing market, over the past three years rents have increased precipitously, forcing many households to spend far above the federal standard for affordability: households that spend 30 percent of income on housing are considered “rent burdened.” In the Bay Area, fully half of all renters, and 60 percent of low-income, Black, Latino, and Native American households fall into this category.

If regional, state, and national leaders implemented strategies to promote housing affordability and rising incomes, however, the impact on racial and economic equity would be dramatic. Because rent burdens have increased disproportionately for people of color, rental affordability would translate into substantial increases in disposable income for individuals and families of color, especially those who are economically insecure. For example, a housing burdened low-income family of three would recover $9,000 a year -- enough to cover an entire food budget, all transportations costs, or even a year of tuition at a California state university!

Considering the collective spending power that renters have in the Bay Area, this economic boost to individual households would have ripple effects throughout the region. Renters already contribute $70 billion to the regional economy, but if economically insecure renters paid only what they could afford, their spending power would grow by $4.4 billion -- more than San Jose’s annual budget.

So how can we realize these gains? Rent burdens are a function of stagnant wages and rising costs, so we need a multifaceted approach including comprehensive housing solutions (including protection, preservation, inclusion, and production), efforts to ensure economic security and rising incomes, and building renter and community power. We outline these strategies—and additional analyses—in our latest report, Solving the Housing Crisis Is Key to Inclusive Prosperity in the Bay Area, developed through our Bay Area Equity Atlas partnership with The San Francisco Foundation. And momentum is growing for solutions: advocates are working to repeal California’s Costa-Hawkins law, which restricts local municipalities’ ability to protect residents from exorbitant rent increases. So far, they’ve collected 588,000 signatures to place the repeal on the November ballot—far above the 365,880 needed to qualify the measure.

To see how renter burden affects different members of your community, visit the National Equity Atlas and type in your city or state. You can also download and share these charts on social media, tagging it #equitydata so we can follow along.

 

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National Equity Atlas: April Update

Dear Atlas users:

Happy Spring from the National Equity Atlas team! We are feeling refreshed and inspired by Equity Summit 2018 and were happy to see some of you there. For those who could not join us in Chicago, Atlas team member Ángel Ross of PolicyLink has written a recap of our equity data-related sessions and you can find our livestream archive of the plenaries and more here.

  • New Bay Area Housing and Economic Insecurity Report and Local Analyses
    At the Summit, our team released Solving the Housing Crisis Is Key to Inclusive Prosperity in the Bay Area. This report, produced in partnership with The San Francisco Foundation, presents new data and analyses that illustrate how rising rents and stagnant incomes are straining household budgets and stifling opportunity in the Bay Area, jeopardizing the region's diversity, growth, and prosperity. To show how these dynamics are playing out in two Bay Area cities, we teamed up with Working Partnerships USA in San Jose and the Raise the Roof coalition in Concord to produce localized analyses. Read more about those analyses and how these groups are taking action to address the crisis and protect tenants from displacement here.

 

  • Partnership Opportunity for Equity Data Projects in Select Communities
    The National Equity Atlas team is accepting proposals from community organizations or collaboratives in the 10 priority communities of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (Albuquerque, NM; Farmington, NM; Las Cruces, NM; Detroit, MI; Battle Creek, MI; Grand Rapids, MI; Jackson, MS; Sunflower County, MS; Biloxi, MS; and New Orleans, LA) to co-develop equity data projects that advance inclusive prosperity. We will work with five community partners on community-owned data projects that empower collective action, undergird advocacy, and inform policy. Applications are due by May 25. Learn more during our informational webinars on May 3 at 12 p.m. PT/ 3 p.m. ET and May 4 at 12 p.m. PT/ 3 p.m. ET.

 

  • Chart of the Week: Alabama Transit Justice
    In this week's Chart of the Week, James Crowder of PolicyLink highlights one of the major barriers to employment identified in our recent report Advancing Employment Equity in Alabama. In cities and regions across the country, low-income residents and residents of color face limited public transit options as dwindling public transportation resources leads to reduced schedules and fewer service access points. For example, in Alabama the average commute time for Black workers on public transit (47 minutes) is almost 20 minutes longer than it is for White workers (28 minutes).

 

  • In the News…
    A reporter for the Winston-Salem Chronicle highlights a new analysis from the North Carolina Justice Center that uses Atlas data on school poverty to show the correlation between the expanding achievement gap between Black and White students in North Carolina and the increasing segregation in local public schools. Similarly, an op-ed that was published in the Atlanta Daily World and the Dallas Examiner uses the school poverty indicator to advocate for investments in majority Black schools and new curriculum models. Finally, "Solving the Housing Crisis Is Key to Inclusive Prosperity in the Bay Area" was featured in Philanthropy News Digest and Planetizen, and World Journal, the largest Chinese newspaper in America.

 

Thank you!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

Exploring Equity Data for Change at Equity Summit 2018

 

From April 11-13, PolicyLink welcomed over 4,000 equity advocates to Chicago for #EquitySummit2018. It was an inspiring and productive convening, and you can (re)watch the three main plenary sessions here. The Atlas team also organized two equity data workshops, including a pre-summit institute and a strategy session. Here is our recap of the sessions.

Data for Racial Economic Inclusion: Make Your Case

It was a packed house at the pre-summit equity data institute, with more than 100 attendees gathered to learn the opportunities and limitations of local disaggregated data, where they can find publically available local data, and how to build the case for racial equity and inclusion using detailed demographic and economic data.

We began with some education on using disaggregated data. Justin Scoggins, Data Manager at the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE), shared his list of top ten considerations when it comes to working with local and disaggregated data. They include:

  • When calculating percentages, try swapping rows with columns (i.e. within the white population in the U.S., only 10 percent are poor. But 44 percent of the poor are white.)
  • Showing disproportionality by comparing statistics to a relevant broader population (i.e. If we were looking instead at the share of voters that are people of color, then the more relevant broader population would be all people who are eligible to vote, or perhaps registered voters.)
  • Use common sense and intuition. A famous PERE saying: “If you find something interesting/surprising, you are probably wrong!”
 

Sarah Treuhaft, Senior Director at PolicyLink, welcoming participants to the pre-Summit Equity Data Institute

Jamila Henderson, Senior Associate at PolicyLink, followed Justin’s presentation with a live walk-through of the Atlas, highlighting unemployment maps of the Chicago region. She showed how even among majority white neighborhoods with relatively low overall unemployment rates, people of color face unemployment rates greater than 20 percent in over two dozen of these neighborhoods.

Following a small group activity, we heard presentations from Adrian Dominguez at the Urban Indian Health Institute and Dolores Acevedo-Garcia from the Institute for Child Youth and Family Policy at Brandeis University. Adrian shared how there are nearly 1.3 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States today and 71 percent live in urban areas. He also shared an overview of the recently released Urban Indian Health Dashboard. Dolores shared about diversitydatakids.org, underscoring how neighborhoods, which are highly segregated by race/ethnicity, are an integral developmental context for children. And a growing body of research suggests that neighborhood environments (e.g., poverty) influence children’s long-term outcomes (e.g., future earnings, college attendance, etc.).

We closed the session in five breakout groups. Dolores led a session on diversitydatakids.org, Adrian led a session on the new dashboard, and we also had a few guest facilitators. Jessica Mindnich and Sepi Aghdaee from The San Francisco Foundation shared about a new project with PolicyLink and USC PERE to build an online Bay Area Equity Atlas covering the nine-county Bay Area region. Karen Shaban and Karla Bruce from Fairfax County, Virginia discussed building the economic case for equity inside county government and their work to get the Board of Supervisors and the School Board to jointly adopt One Fairfax, a racial and social equity policy that applies to all publicly delivered services. Ángel Ross, Program Associate at PolicyLink, shared the Renter Week of Action analysis and how data can support efforts to build renter power in cities across the country.

Leveraging Data to Move Equity Campaigns in an Era of “Alternative Facts”

In this strategy session, we highlighted the work of local leaders crafting data-driven narratives and campaigns despite general hostility towards equity data efforts at the federal level. Participants gathered to strategize on how to better use data to strengthen their work to advance equity and share examples of how they have used data to frame an issue.

We began by sharing our 2017 report on 10 design principles for online health equity data tools. They include the importance of making data actionable through policy and systems change, emphasizing assets and opportunities not just disparities, and honoring indigenous data sovereignty.

Vicki Quaites-Ferris, from the Empowerment Network, presented on how they used the Equitable Growth Profile to inform the Heartland 2050 regional plan in the Omaha-Council Bluffs region. They also created the STEP-UP Omaha initiative, a summer training employment pathway, to reduce unemployment, which was correlated with a decline in gun violence. Go to empoweromaha.com for more on the Empowerment Network, including the upcoming release of an updated profile on June 6.

Later, Neeraj Mehta, from the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA), shared about how their research approach flips the traditional research approach on its head. Rather than focusing on concentrated poverty, they focus on concentrated White wealth. And rather than relying on research questions generated within the academy, they rely on research questions posed by community members outside the university. Neeraj also shared about a new gentrification analysis in Minneapolis and St. Paul, which found that gentrified census tracts tended to be located along transit corridors. For more on CURA, visit http://www.cura.umn.edu/program-overview. To view Neeraj’s slides, click here.

Jihoon Woo, a producer, writer, and artist from New Jersey, opened the session with a powerful piece on truth and facts. Also pictured: Neeraj Mehta and Vicki Quaites-Ferris.

 
 
 

Co-Develop Community Data Tools with the National Equity Atlas

A Request for Letters of Interest to Partner with the National Equity Atlas to Co-Develop Community Data Projects (PDF)

Across the country, local organizations are leading collaborative, cross-sector efforts to advance equity-driven strategies for inclusive prosperity. Data disaggregated by race, geography, and other demographics is foundational to their efforts, both to build a shared narrative about how and why equity matters to their community’s future and to inform community action and measure progress toward results. When informed by the voice, wisdom, and experience of those most impacted by structural racism and systemic bias, data projects can empower collective action, guide decision-making, undergird advocacy, and inform policy development and investment.

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity at the University of Southern California (PERE) invite local partners working in the ten priority communities of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to submit proposals to work with our team on data projects to inform their equity initiatives.[1] This opportunity builds on the series of community equity profiles we produced in 2017 and focuses on supporting local leaders in developing more effective data-driven narratives, community-owned data projects, and knowledge products that strengthen and accelerate their equity efforts.

Over the next two years, we will partner with five community organizations or collaboratives to co-develop data projects that advance equitable growth strategies locally. We can support three types of data projects.

  • Customized online equitable growth data dashboards. These interactive dashboards would include a set of 5-7 locally-prioritized indicators for monitoring progress on equitable growth, along with a narrative framing the data and solutions being advanced by the community partners. They would include indicators of demographic change, economic equity, transportation justice, housing, education, or other indicators for which data are available via the National Equity Atlas/our equity indicators database (see the “Data and Methods” page). We could possibly include 1-2 indicators from local sources depending on availability and need. Example: Data Summaries page on the National Equity Atlas.

 

  • Responsive data analyses to support policy campaigns related to housing, health equity, equitable development, and economic security. These analyses could be a series of short and sharable fact sheets or infographics that frame an issue with local data in support of a campaign. They might include data for a series of geographies ranging from the county or regional-level down to the neighborhood or provide data across a set of issues like housing affordability or employment equity. Example: Renter Week of Action fact sheets.

 

  • Data-driven narratives to make the case for racial and economic equity. This could be a short report or a web page detailing the economic imperative of racial equity, providing key indicators, and highlighting effective strategies and policies to achieve equity. Example: California’s Tomorrow.

 

Prospective applicants are encouraged to propose tools that support efforts to drive policy and systems changes that advance racial equity and inclusive growth in their communities. For more examples of existing tools developed in partnership with community organizations, please visit the National Equity Atlas at http://nationalequityatlas.org/reports. Also see our report presenting 10 design principles for health equity data tools.

The National Equity Atlas team will work with a lead community-based organization or collaborative in five of the priority communities over a six-month period during 2018-2019 to co-design a data product and engage other community partners in the process. We seek local partners who are interesting in producing this tool or analysis to inform their policy work and raise their profile on equity policy issues. During the tool development process, community partners would be asked to:

  • Offer an initial vision for a data tool or product (through this application);
  • Co-develop the tool or analysis with the National Equity Atlas team;
  • Convene other local organizations, leaders, and residents to inform the design and development of the tool;
  • Regularly communicate with the National Equity Atlas team via email, phone, and videoconference;
  • Lead the planning of a local release event to share the produce more broadly with community leaders, policymakers, business leaders, and the media; and
  • Participate in two brief survey assessments to help gauge the effectiveness of the project, shortly after the tool’s release and one year after the release.

 

About the National Equity Atlas

The National Equity Atlas (www.nationalequityatlas.org) is a comprehensive online resource that shares indicators of demographic change and economic equity for 301 different U.S. geographies (the 100 largest cities, 150 largest regions, all 50 states, and nationwide). Maintained through a partnership between PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE), the Atlas draws on a unique indicators database that incorporates hundreds of data points from public and private data sources and includes historical data as well as demographic projections through 2050. Through timely analyses, reports, and blog posts, the Atlas provides local leaders with data to track, measure, and make the case for inclusive prosperity.

Submission Deadline and Selection Process

There will be two informational webinars about the project, where interested partners can learn more about the types of tools and analyses that the Atlas team has produced and ask any questions related to the project.  These webinars will take place on Thursday, May 3 at 12pm PT/3 pm ET and Friday, May 4 at 12pm PT/3 pm ET. The Atlas team is also available to vet project ideas with community partners.

Organizations interested in this opportunity should complete the online application by May 25, 2018 to be considered. Please direct all questions to James (james@policylink.org) via email, specifying “Data Tool LOI Question” in the subject line.

PolicyLink and PERE will review and evaluate all applications and select two projects to work on in mid-2018 and three projects to work on in early 2019. All applicants will be notified if they are selected by June 8, 2018.

Selection Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

  1. Potential to support community-driven policy and systems change to advance racial and economic equity. We are looking for data projects that aim to leverage data to influence public policy, resource allocation, and decisionmaking. This includes all points in the policy process from informing and framing the debate to monitoring progress toward equity results. We seek partners that have a track record of building inclusive coalitions that advance equity solutions.
     
  2. Potential to build community power and capacity. We are looking for data projects that engage impacted communities in the tool development process and increase community capacity to influence the policy debate by strengthening their use of data to track, measure, and make the case for equity solutions. We believe that communities that bear the brunt of inequities should be at the forefront when creating data tools, both to inform tools with community knowledge and ensure tools meet community needs and aspirations. We are looking for projects and partners that will undertake this data project in a way that engages communities of color, low-income communities, and other vulnerable populations, such as the transgender and/or disabled community, in the process

In addition, we will consider the diversity of places, projects, populations of focus, and levels of community data capacity across the five projects.

Download this request for letters of interest as a PDF.

[1] The ten priority communities are: Albuquerque, NM; Farmington, NM; Las Cruces, NM; Detroit, MI; Battle Creek, MI; Grand Rapids, MI; Jackson, MS; Sunflower County, MS; Biloxi, MS; and New Orleans, LA

Is Any Bay Area Neighborhood Affordable to Low-Income Families? A Look at San Jose and Concord (Hint: No)

 

On April 10, we released “Solving the Housing Crisis Is Key to Inclusive Prosperity in the Bay Area” in partnership with The San Francisco Foundation. The report underscores the relationship between housing and economic insecurity, and the threat that the housing affordability crisis poses to the region’s economic sustainability. The central analysis draws on neighborhood-level Zillow rent data and shows that a family of two full-time workers making $15/hour can afford the median market rent in only 5 percent of the 9-county Bay Area’s 1,500-plus neighborhoods. The vast majority (92 percent) of these affordable neighborhoods are rated “very low” in opportunity on a comprehensive index of neighborhood opportunity from diversitydatakids.org.

To show how these dynamics are playing out in two Bay Area cities, we teamed up with Working Partnerships USA in San Jose and the Raise the Roof coalition in Concord.

More than half of renters in San Jose today pay too much for housing, defined as paying more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs. Not a single neighborhood in the city has a median market rent affordable to a family with two $15/hour workers. In fact, it would take an annual income of at least $70,000 to be able to afford market rent. To view the full fact sheet from Working Partnerships, click here.

Sixty miles north of San Jose is the city of Concord. Located in East Contra Costa County, Concord is a more suburban city with a median household income lower than San Jose but higher than Oakland. Renters make up 41 percent of households and most renter households have annual incomes below $50,000. Yet no Concord neighborhoods have a median market rent affordable to families with an annual income less than $50,000. And only six neighborhoods in the city are affordable to families with incomes up to $75,000. The majority of Concord neighborhoods require an annual income greater than $75,000. For more information about the Raise the Roof campaign, click here and visit their Facebook page.

Solving this crisis won’t be easy, but we recommend comprehensive housing solutions (including protection, preservation, inclusion, and production), building renter and community power, and increasing economic security. In San Jose, Working Partnerships are working to stop illegal utility charges by preventing landlords from using Ratio Utility Billing Services (RUBS) to increase rents, to add protections for immigrants under just cause eviction, and to stop unfair evictions and harassment of tenants by opposing a redundant and discriminatory “criminal activity” policy. In Concord, Raise the Roof is ramping up efforts on a campaign for more tenant protections. Follow their Facebook page for the latest announcements.

For the full report on the Bay Area housing crisis, visit PolicyLink.org or http://www.policylink.org/resources-tools/solving-housing-crisis-bay-area.

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Chart of the Week: Alabama Transit Justice

To add equity data to the national dialogue about growth and prosperity, every week the National Equity Atlas team posts a new chart from the Equity Atlas related to current events and issues.

This week we are highlighting the importance of public transportation in connecting low-income residents and people of color to quality jobs. In cities and regions across the country, rapidly increasing housing costs and stagnant wages have forced many residents to move further away from the urban core in order to find affordable housing options. As a result, these residents must navigate a “spatial mismatch,” or making choices between neighborhoods with affordable housing or with employment opportunities that pay family-sustaining wages. This spatial mismatch can be a barrier to employment for many, particularly those reliant on public transit.

Over the last year, PolicyLink and PERE have been working with nonprofit partners in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, and Louisiana as part of a project to advance employment equity in southern states. The disparities in commute time in Alabama illustrate how important access to public transportation is in leveling the playing field for having access to quality jobs. Alabamians who travel to work in a private vehicle have comparable commute times regardless of race. However, those residents that get to work on public transit have a markedly different commute. The commute time for Black Alabamians is almost 20 minutes longer than that of their White counterparts.

Alabama is one of only five states that provide no state funding to supplement federal and local transportation funding. Without any state investment in the public transportation infrastructure, transit operators have been forced to cut service to certain neighborhoods and steadily increase fares in order to make necessary repairs. This lack of connectivity also further isolates rural residents and hinders their ability to access employment centers. Given that people of color are more likely to rely on public transit to get around in Alabama, disinvestment and underfunding of the state’s bus systems creates an additional barrier to employment and achieving economic security.   

Thankfully, there are policy alternatives that could enhance the public transit infrastructure in Alabama. Advocates there are promoting a public transportation trust fund to supplement the federal allocation that the state receives. The legislation recently passed the state house of representatives and is currently pending approval in the state senate.

To see the average commute time for your community, visit the National Equity Atlas and type in your city or state. Download and share the chart on social media.

National Equity Atlas: February Update

Dear Atlas users:

Greetings from the National Equity Atlas team! We have been busy updating all of our indicators and are excited to share this new data with you. We are also relaunching our Chart of the Week series adding equity data to the discussion about current events and issues. And we welcomed two new staff to our team: Jamila Henderson, a senior associate at PolicyLink, and Edward Muna, a data analyst at PERE, who you can expect to hear more from in the coming weeks.

Access 2015 Data for Your Community
In September, $201 billion: That's the potential economic boost that the Houston metro economy could have gained in 2015 if there were racial equity, up from $165 billion in 2010. Go to the Atlas to get this data point - and many more - for your community. Most of our 34 indicators are now updated to reflect the latest Census microdata release (the 2011-2015 pooled data from the American Community Survey), and in many case you can see change over time between 2000, 2010, and 2015. Visit http://www2.policylink.org/e/78532/indicators/681q6h/356661236.

Join Our Team this Summer!
PolicyLink is accepting applications from current graduate students for a full-time Equity Atlas summer internship in our Oakland office. Help us produce new equity analyses and build new community equity data tools with partners in the Bay Area, Buffalo, Louisiana, or elsewhere. Apply here by March 9 and share this opportunity with your networks.

Equity Data Informing Community Action in Battle Creek
Last week, the Atlas team was in Battle Creek, Michigan presenting the findings from the Battle Creek Equity Profile to leaders of the BC Vision initiative during their steering committee retreat. We were happy to share data insights and support the group as they worked with the Kellogg Community College Center for Diversity and Innovation to more deeply embed an equity approach throughout its efforts to build an equitable, thriving city.

Chart of the Week: #BlackFuturesMonth
For the final week of Black History Month/Black Futures Month, Atlas team member Ángel Ross of PolicyLink analyzed the gains in Black income nationally and in Oakland, California if the vision of racial equity were achieved—if we lived in a society where all Black people can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential.

In the News…
In an article for Los Angeles Times, L.A. Tenants Union member Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal uses "An Equity Profile of Los Angeles Region" in her opinion piece arguing that planning for transit and affordable housing should focus on the needs of low-income tenants of color, not the production of units, writing, "Without adequate protections to keep low-income tenants in their homes, transit-oriented development might as well be called transit-rider displacement."

Thank you!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

Chart of the Week: #BlackFuturesMonth

To add equity data to the national dialogue about growth and prosperity, every week the National Equity Atlas team posts a new chart from the Equity Atlas related to current events and issues.

Just in time to celebrate the culmination of Black History Month and Black Futures Month, the National Equity Atlas team is thrilled to relaunch the Chart of the Week series. This week, we are honoring the reality of Black existence and Black joy. Our vision of equity is a society where all Black people can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential. To put a dollar amount to the potential gains for the Black population if this vision of equity were achieved, we compared actual Black income to a scenario of racial equity in income for the population ages 16 and older.

Nationally, average Black income was $24,928 in 2015 (as the chart below details). But if Black people had the same age-adjusted income distribution as non-Hispanic Whites, average Black income would be nearly $41,000, an increase of 64 percent. In the City of Oakland, California, average Black income was $30,072 in 2015. But with racial equity, this number would have been over $71,000, a staggering 137 percent increase. The potential gains in Oakland are substantially higher than the national gains because average White income in Oakland is nearly double the average White income nationally. But average Black income in Oakland is just $6,000 more than average Black income nationally, despite being in one of the most expensive metro areas in the country.

Closing racial gaps in wage and employment can be achieved by eliminating discrimination in pay and hiring, boosting educational attainment, and ensuring strong and rising wages for low-wage workers. Policies that focus on these goals are good for families, good for communities, and good for the economy. National Equity Atlas data show that in Oakland, income gains for the Black population are evenly split between an increase in wages and employment, which we measure by the number of hours worked. Strategies that address both factors include ending wage theft and strengthening workers’ rights to organize as well as helping Black entrepreneurs start and scale-up their businesses. With racial equity in wages and employment, Black families would have more money to not just survive, but thrive and plan for the future.

To see the newly updated gains in Black income with racial equity for your community (we just released the 2015 data!), visit the National Equity Atlas and type in your city or state. Download and share the chart on social media using#BlackFuturesMonth and #equitydata.

National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Atlas users:

This year, the National Equity Atlas team was fortunate to work with some of the most talented and devoted equity leaders and advocates across the country to bolster community action with robust data. As 2017 comes to a close, we would like to thank you for being part of our community and share some of the highlights from our year:

  • Data for Community Organizing: When Renters Rise, Cities Thrive
    In September, dozens of cities participated in the #RenterWeekofAction to demand solutions to the renter affordability crisis. Our team partnered with Right to the City, Homes for All, and CarsonWatch to support these actions by producing fact sheets for the nation and 38 cities, and found that if renters paid only what they could afford on rent, they would have an extra $124 billion in their pockets each year, or $6,200 per rent-burdened household. View the fact sheets and check out media coverage in Next City, CityLab, Truthout, and LA Weekly.
  • Advancing Equitable Growth Solutions: Reports and Analyses
    We released several original research reports powered by National Equity Atlas data to make the economic case for racial equity and support the development of the data, tools, and policies that can make it a reality.

Informing Community Action: Equity Profiles

In 2017 our team worked with community partners of cities, counties, and regions from coast to coast to produce 15 equity profiles:

In 2018, we will be deepening and expanding our comparative and place-based research, as well as strengthening the National Equity Atlas tool to further democratize data. We look forward to sharing it with you.

With best wishes for the new year,

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Atlas users:

Happy November from the National Equity Atlas team! We are busy behind the scenes this month updating our data to 2015 for release early next year. We also launched our first report in our employment equity in Southern States series and are gearing up for next week’s webinar focused on data for advocacy. We hope you will join us!

Webinar: Using Data to Support Organizing and Policy Advocacy
Thousands of people in dozens of cities across the country participated in this year’s #RenterWeekofAction, holding actions and assemblies to demand better protections for renters. Join the National Equity Atlas team and Right to the City on December 6 at 12 p.m. P.T. / 3 p.m. E.T. for a webinar about how data supported these efforts. Equity Atlas team members Pamela Stephens and Ángel Ross will describe our analysis, Malcolm Torrejón Chu of Right to the City will discuss communications and messaging strategy, and Josh Butler of Housing Long Beach and Issac Simon Hodes from Lynn United will describe how they used the data in their local campaigns. Register here.

Employment Equity: Putting Georgia on the Path to Inclusive Prosperity
Yesterday, as a part of our work to advance economic inclusion in the South, we released a new report and fact sheet highlighting the importance of employment equity in Georgia. The Atlas team, along with our partners from Partnership for Southern Equity, shared our findings and held a panel discussion with leaders from The Urban League of Greater Atlanta, the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, Decide Dekalb Development Authority, and the Atlanta Federal Reserve. Community mobilization was a key theme: panelists and audience members agreed that the data was powerful, and the most pressing need is for community members to use it to demand job solutions from their elected representatives.

In the News…
This past month, National Equity Atlas data was used:

  • To make the case to preserve and expand affordable housing in Texas neighborhoods through proactive policies in The Daily Texan.
  • To demonstrate the school poverty challenges the Denver Public School District is trying to tackle with some of its recent reforms in The Denver Post’s online news hub.
  • To explain how wage disparities between White employees and employees of color can be addressed through empowering youth of color in Vice Impact.


Thank you!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Atlas users,

Happy October! We’ve had a busy month finishing up several reports, sharing the Atlas with the Urban Sustainability Director’s Network, and supporting the data capacity of the PolicyLink All-In Cities initiative local partners. We are also searching for a new team member and gearing up for several upcoming webinars and events (hope to see you there!) Also, please note that scholarship applications for the PolicyLink Equity Summit 2018 are due November 3.

TODAY: Equitable Economic Development as a Health Equity Strategy
Interested in the intersection between economic inclusion and health equity? Join today’s County Health Rankings & Roadmaps webinar, “Improving Health through Equitable Economic Development and Strategic Partnerships” from 12-1 Pacific/3-4 Eastern. Equity Atlas team member Ángel Ross will share a framework for equitable economic development and the Atlas tool, and the Urban Health Plan located in the Bronx will describe their community-based strategies to improve health by improving livelihoods. Register here.

Webinar: Using Data to Support Organizing and Policy Advocacy
Join the National Equity Atlas team, Right to the City, and CarsonWatch on November 7 at 12pm P.T. / 3pm E.T. for a webinar about how data supported this year’s #RenterWeekofAction efforts. Equity Atlas team members Pamela Stephens and Ángel Ross will describe our analysis, Right to the City Communications Strategist Malcolm Torrejón Chu will discuss messaging strategy, and local community organizers will describe how they used the data in their campaigns. Register here.

Join Our Team: PolicyLink is Hiring a Program Associate
Love the Atlas? Come work with us! PolicyLink is looking for a full-time program associate in our Oakland office to join the National Equity Atlas partnership and Equitable Economy team. The associate will work with community partners in the Bay Area and elsewhere to develop local equity atlases and analyses to inform policy campaigns; produce innovative research on issues of race, place, and economic equity; and further develop the National Equity Atlas. Find the job description and instructions on how to apply here.

Community Indicators Consortium 2017 Summit: November 15-17 St. Petersberg
Gather with other community leaders using data for community action at the annual Community Indicators Consortium conference. The theme of this year’s even is “Information is Power.” Equity Atlas team member Sarah Treuhaft will lead a pre-conference workshop on November 15th on Data Tools for Equity Action. Register here.

In the News…
National Equity Atlas data was used to …


Thank you!
The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Atlas users:

It has been an incredible month for getting equity data in the hands of advocates working to build inclusive cities! We were thrilled to provide powerful data to support the #RenterWeekofAction and hope that you find these fact sheets useful as well. We also released two new reports, including a set of design principles for online data tools advancing health equity, and an analysis of how changing demographics by age and race affects education spending. Enjoy!

When Renters Rise, Cities Thrive: National and Local Fact Sheets
Last week, dozens of cities participated in the #RenterWeekofAction to demand solutions to the renter affordability crisis. Our team partnered with Right to the City, Homes for All, and CarsonWatch to support these actions by producing fact sheets for the nation and 38 cities.* While renters are now the majority in the largest 100 cities, they are burdened by rising rents and low wages. If they paid only what they could afford on rent, they would have an extra $124 billion in their pockets each year, or $6,200 per rent-burdened household. View the fact sheets here and check out media coverage in Next City, CityLab, Truthout, and LA Weekly.

Register Now: Webinar on Improving Health through Equitable Economic Development
On October 24, Angel Ross will share the National Equity Atlas and discuss why equitable economic development is critical to advancing health equity on a webinar hosted by the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps project. Join the webinar from 3-4 p.m. Eastern/12-1 p.m. Pacific to learn more about this important intersection between racial economic inclusion and health, and hear about how Urban Health Plan in the Bronx is using economic development as a strategy to improve community health. Register here.

Powering Health Equity Action with Online Data Tools: 10 Design Principles
This month we released a new report in partnership with EcoTrust, Powering Health Equity Action with Online Data Tools. We offer 10 design principles for creating online data tools that can drive community action for health equity, such as: address the root causes of health inequities, disaggregate data to the maximum extent possible, and honor indigenous data sovereignty. The report also shares examples of tools that embody these principles, and tips for applying these principles. As part of the release, we hosted a Twitter chat about the principles, which you can check out (and add to!) here.

New Report: Bridging the Racial Generation Gap Is Key to America's Economic Future
On September 6, we released new analysis examining how the “racial generation gap” between a growing senior population that is predominantly White and a rapidly diversifying youth population affects spending on public education in counties and states. We find that every percentage-point increase in the racial generation gap is associated with a decrease in state and local per-child education spending of around 1.5 percent. Angela Glover Blackwell and Manuel Pastor describe how this relationship increases the urgency of investing in youth in an op-ed in The Hill and journalist Ron Brownstein wrote about our findings in The Atlantic.


Thank you!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)
 

*City fact sheets are available for: Alameda; Atlanta; Baltimore; Birmingham; Boston; Bowling Green, KY; Brooklyn; Charlotte; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Durham; El Paso; Jackson; Long Beach; Los Angeles; Lynn, MA; Miami; Minneapolis; Nashville; Newark; Oakland; Philadelphia; Portland; Providence; Reno; Rochester; San Diego; Santa Ana; Santa Barbara; Santa Rosa; Seattle; Spokane; Springfield; St. Paul; Washington, DC.

National Equity Atlas Updates

Dear Equity Atlas Users,

From Detroit to Raleigh, we are thrilled to be working with so many incredible community leaders and advocates who are innovating new, data-driven approaches to equitable growth. We are also excited about the analyses we are working on to support the upcoming #RentersWeekofAction, and that registration is now open for Equity Summit 2018.

Detroit Equity Profile Powers FoodLab Detroit’s Good Food, Good Jobs Strategy
FoodLab Detroit recently released a photo essay series about its “Good Food, Good Jobs” strategy, which highlights how Detroit food entrepreneurs are using the data in the recent National Equity Atlas Detroit equity profile to inform their definition of success: “We’ve been focused on working with disconnected youth, and we have grown in part specifically because of that,” said Shannon Byrne from Slow Jams at a recent FoodLab Network Gathering. The PolicyLink team is working with FoodLab to support and amplify their triple-bottom-line business model in communities of color. Learn more and see the photo essays here.

Register Now for Equity Summit 2018: Our Power. Our Future. Our Nation
Join PolicyLink and the National Equity Atlas team in Chicago April 11-13, 2018 to envision with 2,000+ other equity advocates, policymakers, and community leaders how to advance transformative change this moment of backlash and regression at the national level. Using data to bolster the case for equity as a moral and economic imperative and advance equitable growth strategies at scale will be a theme throughout the conference. The Equity Atlas team is developing a hands-on Equity Institute training for the Summit and other relevant content which we will share in the coming months. Read the Summit Vision today and register here.

Data for Action: Designing Employment Equity Strategies in the South
The Atlas team has been continuing our research to inform employment equity strategies in five Southern states. This month, we launched our partnership with Rural Forward and the North Carolina Justice Center to develop an agenda for North Carolina. And with our partners the Alabama Asset-Building Coalition and the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Coalition, we held focus groups in Birmingham and Mobile, Alabama, and Atlanta and Douglas County, Georgia to hear directly from residents facing barriers to employment. This qualitative research will complement rigorous data analysis PERE is completing on the potential economic and social benefits of full employment.

Get Ready for #RenterWeekofAction
During the week of September 18-24, members of the Homes for All campaign are calling for renters and all people who believe that housing is a human right to stand up for our communities, defend our homes, and fight for a world where all people have dignified and affordable homes. In preparation for the Renter Week of Action and Education, the National Equity Atlas team is crunching the numbers to include in fact sheets on the importance of renters in 38 cities where actions will be taking place. Click here to learn more about how you can participate.

Online Data Tools Twitter Chat
On September 13, the Atlas team and Ecotrust will be releasing Powering Health Equity Action through Online Data Tools. Authored by Ángel Ross, the report offers up a set of 10 design principles for online data tools intended to advance health equity. It was developed for researchers, advocates, community members, planners, funders, and others interested in building, improving, or investing in such data tools. On September 14 at 2pm E.T. / 11am P.T., join @PolicyLink and @Ecotrust for a Twitter chat with national leaders who are using and designing data tools to drive health equity and community action by following #equitydata.

In the News…
National Equity Atlas data was used to make the case for fair housing policy change, close racial economic gaps, and more this month:


Thank you!
The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

FoodLab Detroit Uses Equity Data to Power Its Good Food, Good Jobs Strategy

FoodLab Detroit is a community of food entrepreneurs designing, building, and maintaining a diverse ecosystem of triple-bottom-line food businesses as part of a good food movement that is accountable to all Detroiters.

At their recent Annual Network Gathering, designers, policy experts, food justice activists, FoodLab member businesses and community leaders were invited to brainstorm about how to solve the problem of economic inequality and the rise of the working poor in Detroit by ensuring that good food and good jobs are accessible to all people.

At the beginning of the gathering, Chris Schildt from PolicyLink presented the recently-published Detroit equity profile and key metrics related to the city's demographics, economic vitality, workforce readiness, connectedness and economic benefits. Specifically, that:

  • Poverty rates, including rates of working poverty, are growing throughout the city. 64 percent of residents in 2014 lived living below 200 percent of the poverty level.
  • People of color continue to earn the lowest wages. Since 2000, white workers have seen an average decrease in wages by $2/hour, whereas non-white workers (including black and Latino) have seen an average decrease in wages by $5/hour.
  • Roughly 30,000 youth (95 percent of which are people of color) are disconnected from work or school. Detroit is the city with the largest share of disconnected youth in the United States.
  • The average income for people of color in Detroit would increase by 25 percent with racial equity.

 

In their recap of the event, organizers write, “Armed with this data, we discussed how to build a new economy in Detroit that is equitable, sustainable, prosperous and provides opportunities to restore power and agency back to those communities most marginalized.”

FoodLab Detroit documented the gathering in the photo essay, “Food as a Catalyst for Community Change.”

They have also created a three-part photo essay series about their Good Food, Good Jobs strategy, in which food entrepreneurs are creating an inclusive food economy that empowers individuals and supports their community's vision for a vibrant, thriving economy:

National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Atlas Users,

We hope you are enjoying the end of summer! We had a busy month with the release of five new equity profiles, a national convening on how to design equity data tools for community action, and the release of the All-In Cities Policy Toolkit.

New Equity Profiles Released for Five Communities
Understanding the state of equity in your community is a crucial first step to developing equitable growth strategies, but such comprehensive assessments are rare, especially for smaller communities. With support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the National Equity Atlas team recently released equity profiles for five smaller communities: Las Cruces and Farmington, New Mexico; Biloxi and Sunflower County, Mississippi; and Battle Creek, Michigan. During our June 29 webinar, Jessica Pizarek and James Crowder of PolicyLink shared key findings with the field and local leaders from the five communities described how they would use the data to advance equity efforts.

Powering Health Equity Action with Online Data Tools Convening
On July 10, the National Equity Atlas team and Ecotrust hosted a convening in Portland focused on how data tools like the Atlas can power community action towards health equity. About 40 researchers, advocates, data users, and funders shared learnings and workshopped a set of design principles for online data tools for health equity. One of the panels featured Nathaniel Smith from the Partnership for Southern Equity, Sam Sinyangwe from Campaign Zero/Mapping Police Violence, Julia Sebastian from Race Forward, Cat Goughnour from Prosperity Now, and Antwi Akom from Streetwyze, ISEEED, and the Social Innovation and Urban Opportunity Lab at the University of California, San Franiciso and San Francisco State University. Watch that panel discussion here and look out for a final report on the convening and design principles in the fall.

Chart of the Week: Rollback of St. Louis Minimum Wage Hike Drags Down Missouri Economy
Come August 28, St. Louis’s minimum wage will drop from $10/hour to $7.70/hour, thanks to a new Missouri law that prevents municipalities from enacting higher minimum wages than the state standard. This shortsighted policy harms workers and ultimately the state’s economy since lower wages translate into less spending and higher levels of public assistance for the working poor. It also hinders sorely needed progress toward racial equity, as illustrated by our chart of the week. In St. Louis, median hourly wages for full-time workers has remained $18/hour since 1990, while the wage gap between Black and White workers has doubled. To be the first to view each week's chart, follow @PolicyLink on Twitter and visit the Data in Action section of the National Equity Atlas.

New Resource: All-In Cities Policy Toolkit
Interested in learning more about policy solutions to advance racial inclusion and equitable growth? Check out the new All-In Cities Policy Toolkit released July 13. It provides more information on many of the policy strategies shared on the Atlas including living wage provisions, local and targeted hiring, summer youth employment, housing trust funds, racial equity impact assessments, and more. Click here to view the toolkit launch webinar with a demo on how to navigate the site, and stay tuned for new content!

New Study Shows Less Income Inequality = Greater Economic Resilience
A new article in Regional Studies, by three economists at the University of Idaho exploring the relationship between income equality and economic resilience, found that the risk of recession was lower for more equitable counties during the Great Recession. Why was this the case? Because higher-income households are less likely to spend money locally than lower-income households and because growing consumer debt makes the middle-class more vulnerable. Check out this overview in CityLab, and find this and other resources to make the economic case for equity on the Atlas.

Thank you!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

Chart of the Week: Missouri Rolls Back St. Louis Minimum Wage Hike

To add equity data to the national dialogue about growth and prosperity, every week the National Equity Atlas team posts a new chart from the Equity Atlas related to current events and issues.

Today, minimum-wage workers in St. Louis make $10/hour. This is only after a two-year battle in the courts in which the Missouri Supreme Court ultimately upheld the City of St. Louis’s authority to raise its minimum wage following a suit brought by business owners against a 2015 city ordinance. But come August 28, their wages will drop to $7.70/hour thanks to the state government – costing the average full-time, minimum-wage worker in St. Louis about $4,600 per year in lost pay.

Income inequality in the city was higher than the nation in 1990 and has only increased since. Rising inequality does not only hurt low- and middle-wage workers; it also acts as a drag on economic growth for the whole region. More equitable economies, on the other hand, are more resilient and experience more sustained economic growth. Still, Missouri Governor Eric Greitens claimed, without evidence, that the city ordinance “will take money out of people’s pockets,” while allowing a bill that will literally take money out of worker’s paychecks to become law. As State Senator Jamilah Nasheed, whose district includes St. Louis, points out: “Missouri taxpayers shell out $2.4 billion per year in public assistance to make up for the fact that big companies like McDonald’s and Walmart don’t pay their workers enough to survive. Governor [Eric] Greitens and Republican legislators in Jefferson City may be content to let taxpayers subsidize poverty [to] pay for big business, but St. Louis is choosing a different path. One way or another, we are going to save this raise.”

This week’s chart shows how even though there has been no real increase in the median hourly wage since 1990, the Black-White wage gap as doubled. While the median wage captures workers in the middle of the wage distribution, research has shown that minimum wage increases produce “ripple effects” or increases in those earning above the minimum wage. More importantly, a living wage for a family consisting of one adult and one child in St. Louis is over $20/hour, but the median wage has remained $18/hour since 1990. At the same time, the Black-White wage gap has doubled. White workers experienced a $2/hour increase in median wages from 1990 to 2014 while the Black median wage declined $1/hour. Despite stagnant wage growth among all workers, the state of Missouri is still working to suppress wages for low-wage workers.

In an equitable city and state, wages would reflect differences in education, training, experience, as well as pay scales across occupations and industries, but would not vary systematically by race or gender. But National Equity Atlas data shows that full-time White workers have a higher median wage than Black workers in St. Louis and Missouri at nearly every education level. Importantly, this law will hurt all low-wage workers throughout the state, taking hard-earned money of out people’s paychecks in order to deepen the pockets of large businesses.

To see how median wages have changed in your city or state, visit the National Equity Atlas and type in your city or state. Download and share the chart on social media using #equitydata.

National Equity Atlas Update

June 27, 2017

Dear Atlas User,

Summer is here, and the demand for data to drive community action for health equity and inclusive growth continues to grow! We are busy preparing for two important events: the release of five new equity profiles for smaller communities and a national conversation about data tools for health equity action in Portland. We were also thrilled to see our data on working poverty used in an op-ed for Teen Vogue refuting HUD Secretary Ben Carson's claim that poverty is "a state of mind."

July 10 Webcast: Data Tools for Health Equity Action

Join us on July 10 at 11 a.m. PDT/2 p.m. EDT for a livestreamed panel discussion in Portland with national leaders who are using and designing data tools to drive health equity action. Speakers include Nathaniel Smith from the Partnership for Southern Equity, Sam Sinyangwe from Campaign Zero and Mapping Police Violence, Julia Sebastian from Race Forward, Cat Goughnour from Radix Consulting and Right 2 Root, and Antwi Akom from Streetwyze, ISEEED, and the Social Innovation and Urban Opportunity Lab at UCSF and SFS. PolicyLink Senior Director Sarah Treuhaft will moderate. The event is co-hosted by PolicyLink and Ecotrust and generously supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. REGISTER NOW.

June 29 Webinar: Disaggregated Data for Equitable Growth in Smaller Cities

On Thursday, June 29 (11 a.m. PDT/2 p.m. EDT), the Equity Atlas team is holding a webinar highlighting the release of new equity data profiles for five smaller communities: Las Cruces and Farmington, New Mexico; Biloxi and Sunflower County, Mississippi; and Battle Creek, Michigan. Local community leaders, including Rodolfo Acosta-Perez from the Community Action Agency of Southern New Mexico, Josh Davis, Delta Health Alliance, Allytra Perryman of the East Biloxi Community Collaborative, and Jorge Zeballos, Center for Diversity and Innovation at Kellogg Community College, will share how they plan to use the data to advance their work. These profiles were developed with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Register here.

New Detroit Equity Profile

After decades of job and population loss, the City of Detroit has shown recent signs of growth, yet deep racial inequities, declining wages, and a hollowing out of middle-wage, high-opportunity jobs threaten the city's rebound and economic viability. Developed with the support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, this new equity profile highlights how pursuing equitable growth can benefit all residents and businesses in Detroit. For example, had racial inequities in income been eliminated in 2014, the Detroit region's GDP could have been $29 billion larger, a 13 percent increase. We released this profile at a gathering of community leaders on June 13 and also presented our findings at the Allied Media Conference Good Food Good Jobs Network Gathering hosted by FoodLab Detroit.

Chart of the Week is Back!

After a brief hiatus, the Atlas Chart of the Week is back! This week's chart #ProtectMedicaid shows the states with the highest share of people living below 150 percent of the federal poverty line, highlighting those who have expanded Medicaid. To be the first to view each week's chart, follow @PolicyLink on Twitter and visit the Data in Action section of the National Equity Atlas.

In the News…

  • In a recent op-ed for Teen Vogue, writer Lincoln Blades shares our data on working poverty to dispute the perception that poverty is a mindset, responding to HUD Secretary Ben Carson's comment, "I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind."
  • The Long Island Equity Profile released April 24 continues to gain traction. As reported by Newsday, Theresa Sanders of the Long Island Urban League presented the findings to the Long Island Regional Planning Council, the Long Island economy could be $24 billion stronger with racial equity. The council's chair found that statistic "startling" and sought solutions to advance equitable growth in the region.

 

Thank you!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

Chart of the Week: #ProtectMedicaid

To add equity data to the national dialogue about growth and prosperity, every week the National Equity Atlas team posts a new chart from the Equity Atlas related to current events and issues.

Last week, Senate Republicans unveiled their health care bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Like the ACA, the House and Senate bills provide health insurance subsidies through tax credits. But they also roll back federal money to states that opt-in to the Medicaid expansion through the ACA and end Medicaid as an open-ended entitlement.

This week’s chart highlights the share of people living below 150 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) and the states that have expanded Medicaid coverage. For states that have expanded coverage, individuals in a household with an income below 138 percent of the FPL are eligible for Medicaid. As the chart below shows, among the five states with the highest share of people of color below 150 percent of the FPL, only Arkansas and Montana have elected to expand Medicaid. The two states with the highest share of people of color below 150 percent of the FPL —South Dakota and Mississippi, where more than half of people of color live below this poverty threshold — have not expanded Medicaid. At the same time, the three states with the highest share of White people below 150 percent of the FPL — West Virginia, Kentucky, and Arkansas — have expanded Medicaid.

As the Senate prepares to bring the health care bill to the floor this week, call your Senators at (202) 224-3121 to encourage them to save Medicaid, which insures nearly one in five Americans.  

To see how poverty varies in your city, region, or state, visit the National Equity Atlas and share the chart of your community using #ProtectMedicaid and #equitydata.

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