New Report Finds Working Class Hoosiers are Basically Screwed

Working class families across Indiana continue to struggle, as a new report finds that more residents have been falling into the “low income” bracket since the brutal recession began in 2007.

According to a report by the Indiana Institute for Working Families, one out of every three Hoosiers now fall into the “low income” category, meaning that a lot of individuals are earning less that $23,000 per year and less than $48,000 for a family of four. Shockingly, the report also found that one in six Hoosiers are earning less that $11,000 per year.

What’s more is that the children appear to be suffering the most, as nearly 47 percent of them are living under the roof of a low income family, according to the report.

That should come as no surprise considering that while Indiana’s unemployment rate is above the national average, the state’s median family income has severely diminished over the past decade – from $78,599 in 2000 to around $57,148 today.

Most disturbingly, the latest report indicates that most families cannot seem to rise above the economic downtrodden, even with nearly 70 percent of the new jobs paying full-time wages.

Still, the State of Indiana recently ended its fiscal year with nearly $490 million is structural surplus - $39 million more than projected. The state is now sitting on nearly $2 billion in reserves while many of its citizens fight to keep their head above water.