Median household incomes in Rhode Island sank last year by more than $1,000 to $54,891, according to newly released census data, in line with a national trend of stagnant wages.
In Rhode Island, the median income for households has hovered between $54,000 and $56,000 for four consecutive years, including $55,902 in 2013. It has increased only 5 percent since the recession’s end in 2010.
The inflation-adjusted statistics, released on Sept. 16 as part of the American Community Survey data for 2014, indicates that Rhode Island is just a bit above the national median household income of $53,657. Nationally, income levels haven’t moved statistically in three years.
In New England, Rhode Island trails Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire, each of which had median income levels of $66,500 or higher.
Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, who has made middle-class job creation a plank of her administration, has said the state needs more jobs in the range of $60,000 a year.
The General Assembly approved a budget for fiscal 2016 that includes a variety of measures intended to spur job creation.
“We’ve really revamped our job-training program,” Raimondo said last week. “In today’s world, high-wage jobs go to people with high skills. High-wage employers go to states with a highly trained workforce.
“Unfortunately we’ve been standing in place for a long time,” she said. “Change won’t happen overnight. … But I think in the next year, we should begin to see some results.”
From a practical standpoint, the stagnant wages reflect continued pressure on household budgets. And it isn’t playing out evenly. The median household income for white and Asian Rhode Islanders, at $59,487 and $62,203, respectively, is almost double that of Hispanic and black households, according to the data.
Hispanic households, which represent 11 percent of Rhode Islanders, reported a median income of $30,797 in 2014. Black households, which are nearly 6 percent of the population, had a median income of $35,772, the report stated.
Households across the income spectrum are increasingly under pressure to cover living expenses, according to Nicole Lagace, director of HousingWorks RI at Roger Williams University.
In 2012, the organization found a household earning the then-median income of $54,554 could afford to purchase the median-priced family home in just nine communities in Rhode Island, without being considered “housing cost burdened.”
“Spending on housing, for people at all income groups, has increased over time, but incomes have not kept pace,” Lagace said.
In 2000, 16 percent of middle-income households, with a mortgage, were considered housing cost burdened. That number increased to 24 percent in 2012.
“They have less money to spend on health care, on food, and on education,” Lagace said. •
