Advertisem*nt
Continue reading the main story
Supported by
Continue reading the main story
Tuesday: You asked, and we found an answer. Also: Pacific Gas & Electric’s complicated bankruptcy proceedings; and a virtual tour of Yosemite.
Send any friend a story
As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.
By Jill Cowan
Image
Good morning.
(Here’s the sign-up, if you don’t already get California Today by email.)
A few weeks ago, we asked you what you want to know about inequality in California. Hundreds of you responded. The first question we’ll answer comes from Johnny Good, a 76-year-old retiree in San Marcos, Calif., who worked in the state from 1966 to 2009.
“Reporters are constantly using the terms ‘middle class,’ ‘low wage earner’ and ‘rich,’ never defining what they mean. How much in dollars is a middle class annual income in different parts of California? What exactly in bucks does it mean?”
As my colleagues Tara Siegel Bernard and Karl Russell wrote in this look at four middle-class family budgets, most people believe they belong in the middle class, but its boundaries and markers are subject to interpretation.
So recently, my colleague Marie Tae McDermott asked Sarah Bohn, director of research at the Public Policy Institute of California about how we might approach the question in the Golden State.
Ms. Bohn told her that a way to define the middle class in terms of dollar earnings is first to define what it takes to meet the basic requirements for living. And then double that.
“Being middle class means a lot of things. In terms of income, it means you are living comfortably above the poverty line,” Ms. Bohn said. “You have enough resources to well meet your basic needs and beyond.”
To calculate middle income salaries for different regions, Ms. Bohn uses the California Poverty Measure, an estimate of the poverty line that the institute developed with Stanford University, which adjusts for costs of living across the state. That’s about $32,500 per year for a family of four, compared with the national poverty line, which is estimated to be about $25,700.
An annual income of between two and seven times the California Poverty Measure is considered middle class, Ms. Bohn said.
Therefore, she estimates a middle class income in Los Angeles County for a family of four that rents a home to be between $65,030 and $227,605.
For that same family, a middle class income in the Central Valley and Sierra region, a swath stretching from Calaveras County to Kern County, is between $52,762 and $184,666.
In the Inland Empire, a middle income for that family would be between $60,336 and $211,177. In Orange County, those numbers are $71,920 to $251,722.
And in the Bay Area the range is $74,750 to $261,623.
[Here’s more detailed information from the institute about poverty rates around the state.]
The role geography plays is reflected in responses from readers who are anxious about their financial futures despite earning salaries well above the poverty threshold.
Michael K., a reader in San Francisco, wrote, “I’m a tech worker who makes what would be deemed an upper-middle-class salary (around $150,000/year) nearly anywhere else in America, but in San Francisco, it’s barely enough to cover the rent on a modestly sized, decidedly non-luxury 1-bedroom apartment.”
We heard from readers on the lower end of the earning spectrum, too: “I now live in L.A. working a moderately-paid retail job but still struggle to afford living expenses and pay down debts. Every day I learn the financial trappings of life and how expensive it is to be poor.”
So, what’s the future looking like for California’s middle class? In the past four years, the poverty threshold has increased by about 8 percent statewide. Ms. Bohn predicts that over the next five to 10 years it will continue to increase, albeit slowly.
Where do you fall in the income distribution in your area? Most of us prefer to call our incomes “average,” even when, statistically speaking, they’re not. The Upshot’s income quiz might change how you see yourself.
What questions do you have about inequality in the state? Ask them here.
Here’s what else we’re following
We often link to sites that limit access for nonsubscribers. We appreciate your reading Times coverage, but we also encourage you to support local news if you can.
Image
In a San Francisco courtroom, a judge is sorting out the restructuring of the state’s biggest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric. As expected, it’s messy. [The New York Times]
Meanwhile, PG&E has said it may cut off power to hundreds of thousands of customers in about half of the state’s 58 counties this week as part of efforts to minimize the risk that its equipment could spark fires. [The San Francisco Chronicle]
California thought that with an independent citizen commission charged with drawing the state’s political districts, the state could eliminate gerrymandering. But there’s a problem: Not enough people have applied to help with the process. [CalMatters]
After years of investigation into the grisly confessions of a graying man in a wheelchair inside a Lancaster prison, federal officials have announced that Samuel Little is the most prolific serial killer in American history. [The New York Times]
“I had been so completely silenced that although I was central to a story that had ignited a global movement, I did not participate.” Rowena Chiu, a British-Chinese woman who now lives in California, wrote that Harvey Weinstein tried to rape her. Here’s why it took her two decades to speak out. [New York Times Opinion]
Facebook is set to pay $40 million in a settlement after advertisers accused the company of lying to inflate how long users were watching videos. Facebook did not admit to wrongdoing. [The Mercury News]
Sports, sports — and Disney
Image
“The league enjoys LeBron James being a spokesman back in Akron and Cleveland and speaking out on American politics.” But when one of the league’s general managers tweets about the Chinese government? Not so much. [The New York Times]
Also: The Times’s editorial board weighed in on the issue. [New York Times Opinion]
“Think about it: ‘I’m still at the blackjack table, I’ll be there at kickoff, I promise!’” Raiders fans in Las Vegas are ready for the team — and they think the party scene there could even give them an edge at home. [The San Francisco Chronicle]
The Dodgers lost to the Nationals on Monday night and now the series heads back to Los Angeles for a fifth game. [The New York Times]
Before Willie Ito was a Disney animator, he started drawing cartoons in the margins of catalogs his family was forced to burn to keep warm while they were incarcerated by the government with other Japanese-Americans during World War II. [NPR]
And Finally …
Image
A moment of Zen — but, actually: An online tour of Yosemite National Park, courtesy of the photographer Scott Highton, who put together the website Virtual Yosemite.
You can click on a couple of hundred points of interest throughout the park and get a 360-degree view of spots like Tuolumne Meadows and the summit of Half Dome — all without leaving your couch.
And if you’re feeling adventurous, the site includes links resources.
The National Park Service also runs webcams for live views of Yosemite.
California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here.
Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, graduated from U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan.
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.
Advertisem*nt
Continue reading the main story
