MADISON, Wis (WSAU-Wheeler News) More Wisconsinites kept falling into poverty in 2013, despite a modest increase in jobs that year. That’s according to a study being released today by U-W Madison. The seventh annual Wisconsin Poverty Measure showed that 10.9-percent of state residents lived in poverty in 2013, an increase of 0.7-percent from the year before.
Still, the latest U-W poverty figure is 2.5-percent below the rate officially reported by the federal government. That’s because the U-W survey includes public benefits like food aid, and refundable tax credits. The federal numbers only include pre-tax cash income.
Julia Isaacs of the Urban Institute authored the U-W report. She said Wisconsin’s actual poverty fell in 2012 as jobs were being created — but with more jobs created the following year, poverty went up anyway. She blamed the end of a federal payroll tax cut, and noted that much of Wisconsin’s job growth in 2013 came in lower-wage occupations.
The U-W said child poverty statewide rose 0.8-percent to 11.8. Poverty for seniors rose from just over 6-percent in 2012 to 9-percent the following year.
