2006 - 2007 Western Poverty & Policy Small Grants

"State-Level Variation in Material Hardship Among Households with Children", Colleen Heflin, Assistant Professor Truman School of Public Affairs, University of Missouri-Columbia

Material harship (as evidenced by such indicators as food insufficiency, housing upkeep problems, difficulty paying bills, and unmet medical needs) has been of increasing interest when examining questions of poverty in the United States, however previous studies have only focused on factors at an individual level and not in a larger societal context. This study will look at important contextual characteristics such as economic conditions, economic policy, climate, and social policy environment to determine to what extent individual differences in material hardship can be explained by demographic characteristics and by contextual differences.

"Poverty, Legal Status, and Pay Basis in U.S. Agriculture", Anita Alves Pena, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Colorado State University

In the United States farmworkers are paid on either a per-piece or hourly basis. This project will study the relationship between wage contract structures, the legal status of the workers, and how the received earnings of agricultural workers compare to the minimum wage in the nonagricultural sector nationally and in the local labor markets of the western United States. The project will consider how minimum wages can be used to decrease income variance among piece rate workers and minimize poverty among farmworkers without adversely affecting agricultural employment levels or food prices. Thus, this study will contribute to the understanding of the informal relationship between the minimum wage system in the United States, illegal and legal immigration, and the wage structures of the working poor in the agricultural sector.