Current State
Current State
Costs of living have escalated across the country. Access to stable and livable income is critical for young people to access safe housing and to thrive, however historical and structural barriers to employment with a liveable wage, career pathways, and governmental income support have created a disparate economic impact for Black, Indigenous and other young people of color. According to the U.S. Census Bureau Community Population Survey data, young adults have higher rates of poverty than the national average and youth of color have higher rates of poverty than their white peers. (1)
Young people - especially Black, Indigenous and other people of color have been systematically excluded from employment opportunities caused by historical and current day racism and implicit bias. The impact of the pandemic has only exponentially widened the inequity. The U.S. Department of Labor reported that prior to the pandemic young adults were unemployed at double the national average and according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s National Pulse Survey, during the pandemic youth of color were facing extraordinarily high rates of unemployment - with 54% of Latinx youth facing unemployment and 45% of Black youth. (2) Yet according to that same survey, 90% of unemployed young adults were not able to access any income during the start of the pandemic. (3) The pandemic has highlighted a known fact - that youth and young adults have little access to income support when facing unemployment across the country outside of SSI-disability and TANF for those with children. This leaves youth at great risk of homelessness with little to no safety net. Programs created to provide support often require cumbersome applications and documentation which increases the barriers. (4)
Additionally, there are limited career supports across the nation to help youth enter the job market. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) offers one of the only federally funded opportunities to assist youth in entering the job market. A minimum of 75% of the youth funds allocated must be used to provide services to out of school youth with extended eligibility criteria. (5) This has had a positive impact by creating new employment support opportunities for youth but the services still have numerous access barriers for many Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Queer youth and the fund are still extremely limited and do not meet the need across the country.
For youth in the workforce, the lack of federal increase in the minimum wage has a direct negative impact, particularly for youth of color. The federal minimum wage has not been raised since 2009 and has only 59% of its peak value in today’s economy. (6) 30 states and Washington, D.C. have made raises within the state. These raises have led to wage increases for 26 million workers, 12 million of which are Black, Latinx, or Asian American, (7) showing the impact a federal raise could have on workers of color. These wage increases could directly affect the ability of youth in the workforce to obtain safe housing.
Youth of color, particularly Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming youth can face high rates of employment discrimination, adding to the complexity of securing income. According to the National Center for Transgendered Equality, more than one in four transgendered people have lost a job due to bias and more than three-fourths have experienced some form of workplace discrimination. (8)