A first of its kind report for New Mexico looks at a particular demographic of people living above the federal poverty level, but still struggling to make ends meet. The study found 46% of New Mexico households fall below the threshold for what United Way calls ALICE.
ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, and it represents the group of people who are working, scraping by, but don’t quite have enough money to truly afford all the basic necessities, what the report refers to as the “survival budget”. The report constructs that number for each individual county based on local costs and wages, and largely references U.S. Census and Federal Reserve data from 2023.
According to the report, 17% of New Mexico households fell below the Federal Poverty Level of just over $14,500 dollars a year for a single person household, and 29% of New Mexico’s households fell into the ALICE category. That means more than 385,000 households, almost half, are struggling to make ends meet.
CEO of United way of Northern New Jersey and President of United for ALICE, Kiran Handa Gaudioso, said it’s important to break those numbers down to a county level, however, to get the full story from the report. For example, 60% of households in McKinley County fall below the survival budget, but that number is only 11% in Los Alamos County.
“I think when we don't really try to go granular, that's where a lot of things get masked, and we don't really understand the extent of hardship,” she said. “Even in one county, we see a lot of differences.”
The New Mexico report was conducted by all eight United Way of New Mexico chapters as part of the larger national initiative, and includes a breakdown of the data that can be viewed from numerous angles online.
For example, of the 20 most common occupations in the state, 16 paid less than $20 per hour, and 41% of workers in those fields lived in households below the ALICE Threshold.
Statewide Director for ALICE, Jeanette Brahl, said this data can help bring attention to the issue of people stuck between the official line for poverty, and truly being able to support themselves. She said it can help develop actionable strategies for health care access and financial education, and United Way of New Mexico chapters are working to include financial literacy and coaching into existing programs like Tax Help New Mexico.
“We also know that there (is) public policy potential here,” she added.”This state is working hard already for citizens, and ALICE data and the energy around this conversation can assist.”
Handa Gaudioso said at a national level, one of the first main goals is to get people to start rethinking the federal poverty level, and then to eventually bring relief to people living below their survival budget.
“Many Alice households are one emergency away from really falling on hard times,” she said. “But even without that one major emergency, these families are struggling every week, making very tough choices — buy groceries or pay rent, pay the electric bill or pay for a prescription. They're really struggling to be able to afford the basics for their families on a weekly basis.”
The ALICE report began in 2010 focused on one county in New Jersey, and has grown to include 38 states and Washington D.C, Handa Gaudioso said, and they hope to expand to the entire country.
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
