A LIVING WAGE FOR THE U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS
1 A LIVING WAGE FOR THE U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS RELEASED: FALL 2023 The USVI Bureau of Economic Research EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A living wage is the minimum income necessary for families to make ends meet without public or private assistance by using the actual costs of basic needs, considering family composition, ages of children, and geographic differences in costs. The standard benchmark of the Federal poverty line (FPL) is usually an inadequate indicator of how much a family needs to survive in each place. The FPL measure is based only on the cost of food and does not consider costs like childcare and healthcare or geographic differences in the cost of essential expenses. WHAT IS THE SELF-SUFFICIENCY STANDARD? An analysis of the living wage (as calculated in 2022), compiling local specific expenditure data for food, childcare, health care, housing, transportation, and other necessities, finds that: To make ends meet, a single adult would need to make a minimum of $13.70 per hour ($28,496 annually) with benefits or $21.31 per hour ($44,325) without benefits and subsidies. …
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