WHO IS ALICE
ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) may be a relative or friend. You may be ALICE. As cashiers, waiters, child care providers, and other members of our essential workforce, ALICE earns just above the Federal Poverty Level but less than what it costs to make ends meet. These struggling households are forced to make impossible choices each day. While such hardship is pervasive, households of color are disproportionately ALICE.
ALICE also represents the data reshaping the dialogue on financial hardship, and a grassroots movement that is picking up steam across half of U.S. states – and counting.
MEET ALICE
For a growing number of U.S. households, financial stability is nothing more than a pipe dream, no matter how hard their members work. These households are ALICE – Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed – earning above the Federal Poverty Level yet struggling to afford basic expenses.
ALICE households:
- Span all races, ages, ethnicities, and abilities, though households of color are disproportionately ALICE
- Include workers whose wages cannot keep up with the rising cost of goods and services
- Often include those who are working two or more jobs and still cannot pay their bills
- Include family members who need care and assistance, which makes it harder for their caregivers to find adequate work
- Live paycheck to paycheck and are forced to make impossible choices: pay the rent or buy food, receive medical care or pay for child care, pay utility bills or put gas in the car
- Are part of every community nationwide
ALICE may be your relative, friend, colleague, or neighbor, or you might be ALICE. ALICE may also be your health care provider, teacher, retail clerk, sanitation worker, and others. ALICE workers are the backbone of our economy, with the pandemic making it crystal clear just how much we need them.
Children in Financial Hardship
In 2022, 54% of West Virginia’s children lived in households that couldn’t afford the basics. This ranks West Virginia 43rd in the nation, with a ranking of 1 representing the lowest percentage of hardship for children.
Across the river, nearly half (46%) of children in Ohio lived in households experiencing financial hardship, ranking the state 23rd in the nation.
ALICE in Focus: Children reveals that traditional measures of poverty have severely undercounted the number of children ages 18 and younger in West Virginia who are growing up in financially insecure households. While 24% of all children in the state lived in poverty in 2022, the new data shows that 30% lived in families defined as ALICE® (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed). ALICE households earn more than the Federal Poverty Level, but less than the basic costs of housing, childcare, food, transportation, health care and technology, plus taxes.
Ohio faired only slightly better, with 18% of children below the FPL, and an additional 28% defined as ALICE.
