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The report is a measure of income adequacy based on the costs of basic needs for working families: housing, childcare, food, health care, transportation, miscellaneous items, the cost of taxes and the impact of tax credits. The SSS changes based on the number of people in a household and the ages of the children.
The report shows that a Montgomery County family of four with two adults, one preschooler and one school-age child needed $97,150 to meet expenses in 2019. Four years later, a similar family must earn $122,943. This sized family will spend an average of $1,934 on housing and $2,698 on childcare each month. At the same time, the Federal government's official poverty measure (Federal Poverty Guideline) is $30,000 for the same family, which only covers one-quarter of the cost of its basic needs.
“The Self-Sufficiency Standard illustrates in stark terms, the high cost of living for residents here,” said County Executive Marc Elrich. “The cost of housing and childcare are basic needs for families and the information in this report illustrates the importance of locally funded housing and childcare supports, as well Federal benefits such as SNAP.”
The Center for Women’s Welfare at the University of Washington School of Social Work calculates the self-sufficiency standard for all 50 states. Montgomery County’s report is available on the following page.
An interactive Self-Sufficiency Standard calculator for the State of Maryland is available at maryland-cap.org/the-maryland-2023-self-sufficiency-standard-calculator To learn more about the Self-Sufficiency Standard, visit selfsufficiencystandard.org.
