Living Securely in America

The Economic Policy Institute’s Elise Gould went on The Brian Lehrer Show today to talk about the EPI’s updated “Family Budget Calculator” which looks at the actual costs of living for more than 600 communities across the U.S. for a range of single- and dual-parent households. The calculator looks at how much money families need to have to live a secure, but modest living in their metropolitan area (methodology here, report here).

Here’s what a single parent with three children needs to earn to have a secure living in the Washington D.C. area (which I chose based on the interview I did with the single mother living on $40K in D.C. and finding it difficult to get by):

The calculator is here.

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