1 In 4 JeffCo Families Don't Earn Enough To Afford Area: Study

JEFFERSON COUNTY – Jefferson County families need income more than three times the federal poverty level to make ends meet, according to a new study by the Colorado Center on Law and Policy.

A Jefferson County household with one adult and one preschooler, for example, needs annual income of $55,767 to make ends meet – more than three times the federal benchmark of $16,460 for a family of two. In Jefferson County, a total of 22.8 percent of households "fall under the standard," the study said. The median household income in JeffCo was $72,017 in 2016, according to the Denver Regional Council of Governments.

The minimum income needed in Jefferson County is higher than Denver County, where the same family could be "self sufficient" based on an annual income of $53,256, the study shows.

University of Washington professor Diana Pearce developed the report, which has tracked family income needs since 2001. In spite of an economic boom in Colorado, and low unemployment, the number of households in over their heads has risen by 7 percent since the study began.

That shows that wages have not kept up with rising expenses, Pearce said in a CPR interview.

“No matter how you measure it, expenses are going up faster than peoples wages,” Pearce told the radio network. “People are experiencing a huge crunch.”

Statewide, about 27 percent of households are struggling to meet basic needs, such as healthcare, transportation and housing, the study shows. The study doesn't take into account student loan, medical or credit-card debt, which also eat into family budgets.

Here's the breakdown of expected minimum expenses for different household types in JeffCo, according to the study:

The study shows that for JeffCo households with two adults and an infant, the minimum hourly salary required is $15.74 per adult, or a combined family income of $66,494 – and that's for housing that costs $1,383 per month. According to 2016 regional data from the Denver Regional Council of Governments, the median household monthly lodging cost in Jefferson County was $1,407 for property owners and $1,118 for renters.

READ the whole report here.

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