Study: most N.C. families don't make a living wage.

• Position: Economic Outlook - Interview

Sorien Schmidt, lawyer for the North Carolina Justice and Community Development Center in Raleigh, was shocked to learn that 60% of North Carolina parents earn less than their families need to live. That was a finding in a recent report site co-wrote, Working Hard Is Still Not Enough, a sequel to a 2001 study that concluded real wages are falling for thousands of parents.

BNC: How did legislators and policy makers react to your finding that in six of 10 families parents don't earn a living wage?

Schmidt: There were two reactions. One is, people get it. They see the problem, they under stand it, and they know it has been going on. Some others, though, say, "Give me a break. Sixty percent of our families are earning less than they need? How can they be surviving?"

How are they surviving?

The reality is we have more people on food stamps right now, more people getting childcare subsidies, more people getting government-subsidized health insurance than ever before. Would we rather be paying for those things through social services and government services or would we rather be rewarding people for work?

How does the living wage that you calculated for North Carolinians compare with the federal poverty level--$18,400 for a family of four?

The federal poverty level is not an accurate measure of how much it costs to live. Even in North Carolina, it costs a different amount to live in a rural county than it does to live in Charlotte. So we created the living income standard, which focuses on families with children. We assume every parent is working full time, full year, so the cost of child care is part of the calculation. What we found was that in North Carolina, on average, families need about double the federal poverty level. When we looked at census data, we found that 60% of all families in North Carolina with children have an income below that level. About 46% of the state's children are living in those families.

How can that problem be fixed?

We need to be figuring out ways to create our next job market that will produce enough jobs for people to live on. We really need to bring our best leaders, our best academics, workers and employers all around the table and really make a concerted, thoughtful effort to plan what we want the economy to look like.

What would it look like?

Clearly, we want to be attracting jobs that pay wages and benefits that will support families. We want to spend our limited tax dollars on attracting jobs that provide...