Price of goods outpaces many wages

Anne Danahy

When the price of eggs goes up, it might not break a family's budget. But it's another little pinch.

For many families, those pinches are adding up.

Eggs cost 44 percent more in September than they did the previous year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The price of milk is 21 percent higher. The cost of beef has risen 6.4 percent.

The USDA points to the rising cost of commodities, such as corn, coupled with higher fuel prices as the reason for a 4 percent increase in the consumer price index for food so far this year.

The bottom line: By the end of the year, Americans could see the biggest increase in food prices since 1990, according to the USDA.

Add spiraling gas and home heating costs to the mix, and many Centre County families find wages aren’t keeping up with the costs.

“We’re seeing a greater demand for Interfaith Mission services in general,” said Matt Hall, Interfaith executive director. The State College area organization provides emergency assistance to low-income families for services such as housing, utilities and transportation.

Median family income continues to climb in Centre County — from $50,559 in 1999 to $61,700 in 2006, a 22 percent increase, about in line with the 20 percent increase in the cost of living, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, between 2000 and 2007.

Some workers in Centre County have seen dramatic earnings growth in that time. The average weekly wage for management of private-sector companies and enterprises, for example, grew 55 percent between 2001 and 2007, from $746 to $1,157.

But not all salaries are keeping up with inflation. The average weekly wage in manufacturing, for example, grew about 10 percent during that same time. Private-sector utilities workers saw average salaries drop from $1,604 to $1,216 a week, according to the state Department of Labor and Industry. Private educational service workers make just 5 percent more than they did in 2001.

Meanwhile, fuel prices are expected to go up 22 percent this winter, Hall said.

Gasoline cost 10 percent more in September 2007 than in September 2006, and that grim trend is continuing. As of Nov. 15, the average price of a gallon of gas in Pennsylvania was $3.11, or $0.89 more than it was a year earlier.

Bob Ott, director of the county’s Office of Adult Services, said more people are having a difficult time covering rising costs for fuel, shelter, food and medical care.

Human-services agencies are also feeling the effects of higher prices.

Ott said the costs of wholesale supplies used by food banks have increased.

“So our purchasing power with each government dollar and with each donated dollar has decreased as well,” Ott said.

“Were seeing a whole other layer of people accessing the food banks,” Ott said.

One of the fastest growing sectors of Centre County’s economy is the service industry, including retail trade. According to the state Department of Labor and Industry, the average weekly wage of Centre County’s 7,664 retail trade employees was $365 in the first quarter of the year.

That wage provides a living for a single person, but not a family. And even for one person, it offers little room for unexpected expenses or emergencies.

Holly Eckley, employment programs instructor at Central Pennsylvania Community Action in Bellefonte, sees such problems firsthand: the young woman whose car had broken down, who couldn’t pay her rent, other people who can’t afford their heating bills.

“In a retail environment, you do not make enough to keep your head above water,” Eckley said.

Anne Danahy can be reached at 231-4648.