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HTH are the initials for House The Homeless, Inc.. This is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in Austin, Texas and formed in 1989. Its stated mission is Education and Advocacy around issues that cause and prevent homelessness. |
| HTH is an all-volunteer organization whose Board of Directors is comprised of no less than 60% homeless and formerly homeless citizens. Our goal is to end "homelessness" in our lifetime. |
A UNIVERSAL LIVING WAGE FORMULA |
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We believe that a large portion of the tax burden imposed on taxpayers for public assistance programs can be drastically reduced. This can be done if all minimum wage employers would stop hiding behind the Federal Minimum Wage and simply pay a Fair Living Wage which is related to the cost of housing. |
| The concept is simple. It is based on the premise that if a person works 40 hours a week, then he/she should be able to afford basic housing. We use two existing Federal guidelines to determine what the Universal Living Wage should be. The first guideline (a HUD standard also used by banking institutions across America) dictates that no more than 30% of a person's gross monthly income should be spent on housing. The second guideline, the Fair Market Rents (FMRs) are established by HUD throughout the country for each municipality and all other areas. Therefore, the Universal Living Wage will vary per area in accordance with the FMR. FMRs are based on gross rent estimates which include shelter, rent and the cost of utilities except telephone service. |
| We believe that this format, using already established government guidelines, enables us to utilize existing government formulas to easily justify specific Universal Living Wage figures that are based on the need for housing and are appropriate to each municipality and outlying areas. |
Universal Living Wage Formula |
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"We have devised a National Formula that is based on each local economy throughout the entire United States. The formula is designed in such a manner that no matter whether you are in Austin, Boston, or L.A., if you are willing and able to work a 40 hour week, you should at least be able to afford the cheapest form of housing." |
| Example: |
| In Anywhere, ST: |
| An Efficiency Apartment requires $10.60/hour |
| A One Bedroom Apartment requires $12.83/hour |
| While the argument can be made that we need to more fully address medical and day care needs, this formula provides for the moral argument that if you are willing to work for it, you should at least be able to access the most basic form of housing and the barest of other necessities. The Universal Living Wage Formula allows us to justifiably call for a significant increase in the minimum wage in such a manner that is also politically achievable. The formula was transformed and introduced as a bill in a Texas Legislative Session. We believe that by enacting ULW legislation the minimum wage could put back on course (to a time before it failed to keep pace with inflation) when in the early 1970's (before "homelessness") the minimum wage was sufficient to allow people to work themselves off of our nation's streets. Wouldn't it be a quantum leap forward to remove the economic barriers that keep many homeless persons on our streets? |
| Finally, by adopting the formula entirely, by indexing it to the cost of housing (through the use of the Fair Market Rents that are readjusted each year by the US Dept. of HUD), we would not have to continually revisit this wage issue. As the cost of housing rises (or falls), the wage would keep pace with it in each locality throughout the United States. As a result, if a person is willing to work a full 40 hour week, they will be able to earn a wage sufficient to at least get into the cheapest form of housing whether it is in Austin, Boston or LA, etc.. |
UNIVERSAL LIVING WAGE FORMULA CALCULATIONS |
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1.HUD STANDARD: No more than 30% of a person's gross income should be spent on Housing. |
| 2. HUD FAIR MARKET RENT: $551 (Efficiency Apartment in Anywhere, State, USA) |
| 3. TOTAL MONTHLY INCOME:$551 divided by .3 = $1836.67 monthly gross income necessary to afford basic housing. |
| 4. PREMISE: Anyone working 40 hours per week should be able to get housing and get off of the streets. 1 |
| 5. WORK HOURS: 40 hours/week @ 4.33 weeks/month = 173.33 work hours/month, 173.33 work hours X 12 months = 2080 hours/year. |
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6. Total Gross Monthly Income of $1836.67 X 12 months = $22,040.00 $22,040.00 divided by 2080 Hours/Year = $10.60/Hour ------ NEW HOURLY WAGE in Anywhere, State, USA. |
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7. Total Monthly Expenditures: |
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$1836.67
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Total
Gross Monthly Income 2
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- $
416.01
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Fed.
Taxes, Soc Sec., Medicare sup
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- $ 551.00
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Housing
Costs
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$
783.34
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Remaining
for: Medical, Clothing, Food, Transportation
and Telephone
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| 1Whether a person works 4 hours per week or 40 hours per week, they should be paid at the full 40 hour rate. A full hours work deserves a full hours wage. |
| 2Minus $275.50 for Federal Income Tax, $113.87 for Social Security, and $26.63 for Medicare. The Federal Income Tax rate (15%) is based on the monthly deductions outline in the Internal Revenue Circular E, Employers' Tax Guide (Rev. Jan, 2000), Social Security is 6.2% of gross monthly income, and Medicare is 1.45% of gross monthly income (Total equals $416.01) |
UNIVERSAL LIVING WAGE FORMULA CALCULATIONS |
| 1. HUD STANDARD: No more than 30% of a person's gross income should be spent on Housing. |
| 2. HUD Fair Market Rent: $667(One Bedroom Apartment, in Anywhere, State, USA) |
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3. TOTAL MONTHLY INCOME: $667 divided by .3 = $2223.33 monthly gross income necessary to afford basic housing. |
| 4. PREMISE: Anyone working 40 hours per week should be able to get housing and get off of the streets.1 |
| 5. WORK HOURS: 40 hours/week @ 4.33 weeks/month = 173.33 work hours/month, 173.33 work hours X 12 months = 2080 hours/year. |
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6. Total Gross Monthly Income of $2223.33 X 12 months = $26,680 $26,680 divided by 2080 hours/year = $12.83/hour---- NEW HOURLY WAGE in Anywhere, State, USA. |
| 7. Total Monthly Expenditures: |
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$2223.33
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Total
Gross Monthly Income 2
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- $ 503.58 |
Fed.
Taxes, Soc Sec., Medicare sup
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- $ 667.00
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Housing
Costs
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$1052.75
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Remaining
for: Medical, Clothing, Food, Transportation
and Telephone
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| 1Whether a person works 4 hours per week or 40 hours per week, they should be paid at the full 40 hour rate. A full hours work deserves a full hours wage. |
| 2Minus $333.50 for Federal Income Tax, $137.85 for Social Security, and $32.24 for Medicare. The Federal Income Tax rate (15%) is based on the monthly deductions outline in the Internal Revenue Circular E, Employers' Tax Guide (Rev. Jan, 2000), Social Security is 6.2% of gross monthly income, and Medicare is 1.45% of gross monthly income (Total equals $503.58) |
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In spite of the overall desperate need for affordable housing in this country, in spite of government subsidies and tax breaks being used to keep building costs down and in spite of mixed use initiatives, low income housing is only rarely being built in America and never at a price affordable to homeless citizens. If we can't create truly affordable housing using these kinds of broad-based approaches, and if the Federal Government's response to our plight is no more comprehensive than to give billions of our Section 8 Housing Voucher dollars to foreign countries while our people live on our own streets, then perhaps we need to take a different approach to addressing the problem. Perhaps we need to ensure that people can simply enter the general housing market under their own financial power. This can be accomplished by embracing the simple axiom that suggests that we should pay people a fair (living) wage for a fair days' work. Can we not all embrace the moral premise that says: anyone working a full forty hour week should be able to afford at least the cheapest level of housing without the need for government subsidies? |
| According to John E. Schwartz, author of "Illusions of Opportunity: The American Dream in Question," the minimum wage in the 1950's paid about 110 percent of the amount required to operate a household with two full-time workers with children. By the 1970's, the minimum wage for two workers had fallen to ninety percent and today is less than seventy percent. Additionally, the "real buying power" of the minimum wage is at its lowest point in nearly forty years. Even 1996's two-step federal wage "increase" from $4.25 to $5.15 an hour still resulted in less buying power than it had in the late 1970's. |
| A federal minimum wage of $5.85 per hour amounts to only $12,168. A federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour amounts to only $13,624, and a federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour amounts to only $15,080. |
| A 1996 Wall Street Journal article dated April 11, 1996, stated that in 1995, a United States CEO earned income at a rate of 212 times that of the average US worker. The Working Hard, Earning Less 1998 report, announced that CEO salaries in these same industries range from 143 to 812 times the median income of the workers. In response to this type of inequity, major cities across the United States have now launched Living Wage Initiatives. They are moving to pass Living Wage ordinances that will significantly raise the wage floor. |
| Principally, these cities are creating new wage levels for their employees and for the entities with which the cities or counties have contracts. This effort is admirable and deserves our full support. But realize that while raising the wages of city/county workers and those that contract with them is excellent, it does not directly help homeless persons. That is our principle concern. It is for this reason that House The Homeless, Inc. is calling for the passage of a Universal Living Wage that will affect all workers. This includes all homeless workers. The idea is to provide a basic minimum wage so that people can afford at least a roof over their heads in exchange for labor provided. We have devised a relatively simple national formula that is applied locally. This wage would enable a person who is willing to work a forty hour week to earn the minimal amount needed to afford housing in any city or outlying area throughout the entire United States. |
|
Richard R. Troxell, Chairman |
by Universal Living Wage
PO Box 2312, Austin, TX 78768. All rights reserved.
This site last updated July 29, 2007. Thank you for visiting