Working Partnerships USA

Two LIVE solutions
win voter approval

11-7-12
Working Partnerships played a leadership role in the victory of two measures in the Nov. 6, 2012 elections that will help Silicon Valley’s working families.

We helped save health coverage for 12,000 children in Santa Clara County with the passage of Measure A, a sales tax measure that will provide $120 million in funding to the Children’s Health Initiative (CHI) over the next decade and protect the safety net. CHI is our signature health policy achievement, and when it was enacted 11 years ago, our county became the first in the nation to ensure health coverage to virtually all its children.
We won a raise for 40,000 of the lowest-paid workers in San Jose with the passage of Measure D, which boosts the city’s minimum wage from $8 to $10 an hour. Not only will this help thousands of poor families survive in one of America’s most expensive cities, but it will provide a boost of $71 million to the local economy as these workers buy food, clothes and shelter for their families.

Passage of these two important measures achieves two of the solutions recommended for saving Silicon Valley’s middle class in Working Partnerships’ Life in the Valley Economy report published Oct. 3. You can download a PDF copy of the full report here or obtain a hard copy by emailing lauerhahn@wpusa.org.

Child holds sign supporting minimum wage increase

LIVE Summit keynote speaker
backs minimum wage hike

10-3-12
Decrying what he described as "substituting economic ideology for pragmatism," former Obama administration economic official Ro Khanna called for progressive Americans to restore a role for government in the economy to rescue the dwindling middle class.

"Since (first U.S. treasury secretary) Alexander Hamilton in 1791, government has played an important role in the American economy," Khanna said. "Our progressive vision is the Founders' vision."

Khanna spoke at the Oct. 3 Life in the Valley Economy 2012 Summit...(more)

LIVE 2012 released

Economic report looks at local economy from middle-class perspective

10-3-12
Working Partnerships USA' today released the latest edition of its pioneering economic report, Life in the Valley Economy 2012.

Popularly known as the LIVE Report, this latest edition analyzes the state of Silicon Valley's economy from the perspective of those in the middle and working classes.

"The LIVE report's significance is that it looks at Silicon Valley's economy from the viewpoint of the parent who just dropped the kids off at school and now is rushing to work, not as seen by a banker watching stock market trends on a smartphone," said Cindy Chavez, Working Partnerships executive director.

LIVE 2012 makes available a wide range of data on jobs, wages, housing, health care, education, transportation and more for use by all Silicon Valley community members. Download LIVE 2012.

Census report confirms
declines for Silicon Valley's
poor and middle class

9-20-12
The median income of Santa Clara County families fell by 3.2 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars last year -- more than twice the national decline -- to its lowest point in more than 11 years, according to U.S. Census figures released today.

Today's census data confirm widening income inequality in Silicon Valley traceable to a decline in the well-being of poor and middle-class families.

This decline was a the topic of Working Partnerships USA's Life in the Valley Economy 2012 Summit Oct. 3, at which former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce Ro Khanna gave the keynote address. The event in the chambers of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors marked the release of Working Partnerships USA's pioneering economic report, Life in the Valley Economy, which analyzed the state of Silicon Valley's economy from the perspective of those in the middle and working classes.

The census report on Santa Clara County says the inflation-adjusted median household income fell from $87,529 to $84,895 from 2010 to 2011 and by 22 percent since 2000 and the home ownership rate fell for the fourth straight year to 56.7 percent.