Can You Afford to Have Children in Miami-Dade County?

The Self-Sufficiency Standard highlights the housing and childcare crises in Miami-Dade County, impacting all families.

The Self-Sufficiency Standard reveals the economic reality of living in Miami-Dade County by calculating the income families need to cover their basic needs without assistance. It considers the costs of housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, and taxes and highlights the challenging financial realities of raising children and living in Miami-Dade County. The Self-Sufficiency Standard can be calculated for a wide range of families. These include families with a single adult without children, families with one adult and one infant, families with one adult and one preschooler, and so forth, up to families with three adults and six teenagers.

Key Takeaways

  • Housing and child care costs are the most significant expenses for families in Miami-Dade.
  • A single adult without any children needs to earn $23.42 per hour (40 hours a week) to meet the Self-Sufficiency Standard. In contrast, a single parent with a preschooler and one school-age child needs to earn almost twice that wage, $44.23 per hour, in order to meet the family’s basic needs.
  • A single parent with one preschooler and one school-age child earning the minimum wage in Miami-Dade needs to work 149.7 hours per week to meet the family’s basic needs.

The Self-Sufficiency Standard Dashboard is an interactive tool. You may change the variables to see the results. Note that the Dashboard will not display properly on screen below 1000 pixels wide. Please scale your browser as needed.

Solutions to Help Families Meet the Self-Sufficiency Standard

The Women’s Fund Gender Equity Index Economic Mobility Pillar presents policy recommendations to address some of the challenges families face:

Paid Parental Leave: Employers should adopt generous paid parental leave policies, which enhance economic security, boost new parents’ well-being, reduce infant mortality, and decrease turnover.

Government Regulation of Pay Equality: Government entities should require contractors to affirm and report on pay equity in their workforce through their procurement process.

Support Early Childhood Learning Programs: Employers should promote a financially sustainable business model for early childhood education programs that supports women in the workforce, organize advocacy efforts that improve early learning center operations and opportunities, and provide workforce protections.

GEI Economic Mobility 2024 One-Pager

Explore our detailed Economic Policy paper, Women’s Economic Mobility: Opportunities and Barriers, to learn more about our strategies and recommendations. It outlines proactive measures to bridge gaps and foster economic resilience in our community.

Learn More About the Self-Sufficiency Standard

The Miami-Dade County Self-Sufficiency Standard Dashboard was built with data from the University of Washington Center for Women’s Welfare (CWW). The Self-Sufficiency Standard determines the amount of income required for working families to meet their basic needs at a minimally adequate level, considering family composition, children’s ages, and geographic differences in costs. The Self-Sufficiency Standard works like a basic family budget, to identify a living wage measure that reflects working families’ actual cost of living at a minimally adequate level. The Standard is a more realistic measure than the federal poverty measure.

The Self-Sufficiency Standard was developed in the mid-1990s by Dr. Diana Pearce, then Director of the Women and Poverty Project at Wider Opportunities for Women, University of Washington. The Standard was initially created as a performance measure for federal job training programs, in order to provide realistic data on the self-sufficiency needs of women and families. First calculated for Iowa in 1996, it expanded significantly through Ford Foundation funding in the early 2000s. It is now available in 41 states and the District of Columbia.

“The Standard grew out of my early work on ‘the feminization of poverty’– that is that women are disproportionately bearing the burden of poverty…with welfare reform pushing some women into the workforce without sufficient training and education, I was asked by women’s advocates to devise a ‘performance’ measure that was specific to individuals. Since many of the women (but few men) were single parents, this measure would then make clear that they needed enough to support a family, not just a single person.” – Dr. Diana Pearce

The Self-Sufficiency Standard considers several key costs to determine what it takes to live in Miami-Dade County without public or private assistance.

  1. Housing: Based on local rents and housing costs.
  2. Child Care: Depending on the age of the kids and the type of care (child care cost varies dramatically depending on age).
  3. Healthcare: Includes insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses.
  4. Food: Using the USDA’s Low-Cost Food Plan.
  5. Transportation: Costs of owning a car.
  6. Broadband & Cell Phone: Monthly cost for basic internet and cell phone.
  7. Miscellaneous: Extra 10% for other essentials like clothing and personal care.

Taxes and Tax Credits: All applicable taxes and tax credits you might be eligible for, like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC).

The Miami-Dade County Self-Sufficiency Standard is critically important because it sheds light on the stark reality families face trying to make ends meet. For instance, the alarming statistic that an individual would need to work 149.7 hours a week at minimum wage to support a family of three underscores the urgent need for this standard. The Self-Sufficiency Standard provides a clear benchmark by accurately calculating the income required for basic necessities like housing, childcare, food, and healthcare in Miami. This benchmark highlights the discrepancy between wages and living costs and empowers policymakers to develop targeted policies and programs. These initiatives can effectively support economic stability and ensure that all families have a realistic pathway to self-sufficiency.

The ALICE Report, produced by United Way, stands for “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.” It analyzes households that earn above the federal poverty level but still struggle to afford basic necessities like housing, food, healthcare, and transportation. These households, known as ALICE households, are often called the “working poor.” The report aims to highlight these households’ economic challenges and inform policies to support financial stability. For more information and to access the reports, visit the United Way ALICE Project website.

The ALICE Report and the Miami Self-Sufficiency Standard both highlight the economic challenges faced by working households. The ALICE Report focuses on those earning above the poverty level but still struggling, while the Miami Self-Sufficiency Standard details the income needed for a variety of families in Miami to meet their basic needs without assistance.

Key Differences:

  • Target Population:
    • ALICE focuses on working families nationwide who are struggling despite earning above the poverty line.
    • The Self-Sufficiency Standard targets Miami-Dade residents, providing a specific benchmark for them to reach financial independence.
  • Types of Families: 
    • ALICE includes data for 5 different family types.
    • The Self-Sufficiency Standard includes data for 719 different family types. 
  • Depth of Analysis:
    • ALICE provides an overview of financial challenges and household survival budgets without breaking down monthly costs by county.
    • The Self-Sufficiency Standard offers precise calculations for living independently in Miami, including detailed expenses.
  • Usage:
    • ALICE informs national policies and supports programs for the “working poor.”
    • The Self-Sufficiency Standard aims to guide local policies and personal financial planning in Miami-Dade County

More information and the complete methodology behind the Self-Sufficiency Standard can be found on the University of Washington website: https://selfsufficiencystandard.org/the-standard/methodology/. They also provide other tools such as the Self-Sufficiency Standard Calculator: https://selfsufficiencystandard.org/calculator/.

The Miami-Dade County Self-Sufficiency Standard is produced by The University of Washington, Center for Women’s Welfare.