The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
As much as I love Tucson, I am dismayed that it is a high-poverty, low-wage, low-opportunity community.
If you question whether that description is accurate, then here are some facts:
Tucson’s poverty rate of 16.8% is higher than the national average, and it is higher than the poverty rate in 10 of the 11 cities with which University of Arizona researchers compare Tucson.
Half the jobs in Tucson are low-wage jobs, according to the Brookings Institution.
Adults who grow up in Tucson earn between $1,000 and $8,000 less every year than adults who grow up in 10 of the 11 comparison cities, as I documented in a report last year. In the race for economic success, Tucsonans start far behind people elsewhere.
(Note: “Tucson” in this column generally refers to the Tucson metropolitan statistical area, which is Pima County.)
These statistics are significant.
They mean that half our workers daily cannot be confident they can provide food or shelter for their families. They mean these workers have no resources available even in small emergencies. They mean too many mothers, particularly, cannot afford the child care that would allow them to return to work now that the coronavirus is abating.
Moreover, a high level of poverty drags down the economy for everybody. Tucson’s poverty reduces the area’s gross domestic product by approximately $2.2 billion per year, I estimate, based on studies of the cost of poverty elsewhere.
The conventional solution for solving poverty is to provide better education, including preschool. However, as important as education and preschool are, they cannot reduce Tucson’s poverty. The reason: Even if high-quality education helps a child be prepared to move into a better paying job in adulthood, that still doesn’t change the fact that 50% of the jobs in Tucson are low-wage jobs. That statistic is from Martha Ross, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of the report, “Meet the Low-wage Workforce.”
Tucson’s great percentage of low-wage jobs means that for many Tucsonans, a low-wage job will be the only option available no matter how hard they work. And it means Tucson’s high poverty will continue to weaken our community’s economy.
So, what can be done? To me the solution is to make the current jobs better jobs. Pay those workers in low-paying jobs the higher wages that are more closely related to the community good that they provide. These fair wages are easy to find. Both the Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have online calculators that show a living wage for Tucson. Why can’t we decide that we want Tucson to be a living-wage city — and take the necessary steps to make it happen?
We will be told that increasing the pay of low-wage workers will eliminate jobs. But research shows that’s not necessarily true. Worse, not doing it will condemn Tucson to remain a high-poverty, low-wage, low-opportunity city. Unfortunately, even if economic development brings in higher-wage jobs, that doesn’t solve the problem. That still won’t reduce the number of low-wage jobs.
An immediate step in making Tucson a living-wage community would be to support the effort by Tucson Fight for $15 to get a bill on the ballot that would gradually raise the Tucson minimum wage to $15 by 2025.
But to affect the longer term, we need for our abundance of bright, capable people in business, nonprofit organizations, government, and the university to come together — now, not later — to determine which government and business policies and practices need to be changed over time to ensure workers in Tucson earn a living wage. Only then will Tucson and Pima County become a healthier, safer, more vibrant community in which everybody can thrive.
