CLF Supports Baltimore Study on Increase Cost of Goods and Services to Low-Wage Residents

BALTIMORE, MD—The Center for a Livable Future served as an advisor to a recently-completed study on how the market is failing low-wage city and county residents. The study, completed by the Job Opportunities Task Force, found that on average low-wage Baltimoreans paid more for everyday goods and services than those in higher income brackets.

“Low wage Baltimoreans pay more than their wealthier neighbors for a wide range of services, from groceries and financial transactions to cars and home mortgages,” said the report, Over Priced & Underserved: How the Market is Failing Low-Wage Baltimoreans. “Every year, tens of thousands of areas residents spend hundreds or thousands of dollars more on these items. The market charges consumers an added premium for being poor.” That premium can be as much as $3,000 in additional costs per year, according to the report.

Anne Palmer, Director of CLF’s Eating for the Future program, served on an advisory committee for the study. Palmer and Dr. Manual Franco of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, helped the JOTF with data on the Baltimore food system. “The majority of food establishments in the city are smaller stores that tend to charge higher prices and offer fewer healthy food options,” noted Palmer, who was part of a Oct. 16^th panel discussion sponsored by the JOTF. “The consequences are not only economical, but physical as well with increased in obesity and diabetes.”

To reduce the “poverty premium” in Baltimore, JOTC offered seven recommendations—from improving financial literacy to providing better access to lower-cost healthier food. For more information, visit the Job Opportunities Task Force web site.

Read about this in Baltimore Examiner.