Self-Sufficiency

According to a formula called the Self-Sufficiency Standard, a family of four with two adults, one preschooler and one school-age child in the nine-county Bay Area now needs $74,341 a year to get by, compared with $62,517 three years ago.

SFGate: Don Asmussen: Bad Reporter csaid@sfchronicle.com (Carolyn Said 2011

It's called the Self-Sufficiency Standard for Washington State 2011, a report written by Diana Pearce, director of the Center for Women's Welfare at the University of Washington School of Social Work.

The Seattle Times 2011

Scott Meyer, formerly the editor of Organic Gardening magazine calls his book "The City Homesteader: Self-Sufficiency on Any Square Footage," a title that avoids the word "urban" and thus any pesky trademark disputes.

Putting the Park in Park Avenue Eric Felten 2011

Tom and Barbara in The Good Life were already prepared, with their vegetable patch and chickens and pea-pod burgundy; Richard Mabey's Food for Free and John Seymour's The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency offered guidance for those who wished to follow their example.

State of Emergency: The Way We Were: Britain, 1970-1974 by Dominic Sandbrook Francis Wheen 2010

Starting from the assumption that all adults in the household are employed fulltime, the Self-Sufficiency Standard provides a measure of wage adequacy.

Michele Mattingly: Measuring New York City's Wage Adequacy Michele Mattingly 2010

The report found that the Self-Sufficiency Standard for a family with two adults, one preschooler, and one school-aged child rose by 33 percent across the city between 2000 and summer 2009.

Michele Mattingly: Measuring New York City's Wage Adequacy Michele Mattingly 2010

Yet median wages for these workers are only 77 percent of the Self-Sufficiency Standard for a single Brooklyn adult.

Michele Mattingly: Measuring New York City's Wage Adequacy Michele Mattingly 2010

For example, a Brooklyn family with two adults, a school-aged child, and a preschooler needs $68,288 a year ($5,691 a month) in 2010 according to the Self-Sufficiency Standard.

Michele Mattingly: Measuring New York City's Wage Adequacy Michele Mattingly 2010

For the Brooklyn family with two adults, a school-aged child, and a preschooler, only two occupations in the top ten -- executive secretaries/administrative assistants and registered nurses -- would allow the combined earnings of two fulltime workers earning the median wage to meet the Self-Sufficiency Standard level.

Michele Mattingly: Measuring New York City's Wage Adequacy Michele Mattingly 2010

Looking at the ten most common occupations in the city, the report found that median wages for six of them do not meet the Self-Sufficiency Standard measure for a single adult without children living in Brooklyn, $28,367 (or $13.43 an hour).

Michele Mattingly: Measuring New York City's Wage Adequacy Michele Mattingly 2010