NJPRI Research Reports

• Poverty Benchmarks Report 2010
• Unequal Access to Justice 2009
• Eye on Budget 2009
• The Real Cost of Living 2008
• Not Enough to Live On 2008
• Supporting New Jersey Workers 2008

PRI publishes a variety of reports addressing various aspects of poverty. The most recent reports are:

• Poverty Benchmarks 2010: Assessing New Jersey’s Progress in Combating Poverty
  
  The Poverty Benchmarks Project is an on-going data collection effort that aims to increase understanding of poverty in New Jersey as a foundation for more effective public response to the reality of poverty and its consequences. This report is the fourth in the annual series and updates key poverty trends and attendant policy implications. It also examines the effectiveness of existing state programs addressing poverty and considers additional alternatives for state action.
  
  Previous Poverty Benchmarks Reports
  
  
• Unequal Access to Justice: Many Legal Needs, Too Little Legal Assistance
  
  People of lower income must deal with a broad array of laws and legal processes that directly impact their daily lives and often determine their very ability to survive. The Unequal Access to Justice: Many Legal Needs, Too Little Legal Assistance study, which builds on LSNJ’s earlier (1985 & 2002) research on legal needs, asks whether New Jersey adults with lower incomes are obtaining the legal assistance they need while facing civil legal problems. Results from the study’s survey of 2,846 adults, which also included a comparison with people of higher incomes, find that they are not. The study documents the legal assistance gap facing people of lower income in New Jersey, outlines principal policy implications for closing the civil legal assistance and justice gap, and points to areas where further research is needed.
  
  
  
  

  High Quality Download (ZIP file) - You will need QuickTime in order to view the video.

  Previous Legal Needs Reports
  
  
• Eye on the Budget 2009: How New Jersey State Expenditures Relate To Basic Human Needs
  
  The purpose of this report is to provide a resource guide for understanding the decisions and priorities represented by the State’s multiple, and sometimes confusing, budget documents. State decision-makers, advocates and the general public can use this report as a kind of lens — to evaluate in a focused way the extent to which New Jersey is using available resources to meet basic needs, particularly the needs of low-income and other vulnerable residents. As in prior years, the report discusses the extent and nature of the basic human needs of people in New Jersey, and connects that with information about State programs that respond to these needs. This year, the report then highlights selected key programs for a more in-depth analysis of funding trends and needed actions.
  
  Video news release preview:
  
  
  
  
• Eye on the Budget 2009 Summary: How New Jersey State Expenditures Relate To Basic Human Needs
  • Summary
  • Press release and video
    
    
  This report is the initial Summary report from the sixth edition of the annual Eye on the Budget series. The summary provides an overview of the current state budget crisis and makes specific recommendations for addressing the existing revenue shortfall, implementing smart government changes to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of urgently needed programs, and prioritizing urgent expenditure needs.
  
  Previous Eye on Budget Reports
  

• The Real Cost of Living in 2008: The Self-Sufficiency Standard for New Jersey
  • Full report
  • Printable report
  
  An updated report in the Real Cost of Living series produced by Dr. Diana Pearce, Ph.D. of the University of Washington. The report provides a detailed analysis of the cost of living in New Jersey for working families based on the true cost of basic household expenses including housing, child care, health care, and food. It also provides a comparison of the Real Cost of Living to other benchmarks of income including the federal poverty level, welfare income, and minimum wage income. Several policy implications flow from the report’s themes and the report includes information on key action the state could take to help New Jersey families meet their basic needs given the high cost of living.
  
  Previous Real Cost of Living Reports
  
  
• Not Enough To Live On: Characteristics of Households Below the Real Cost of Living in New Jersey, 2008
  
  This report discusses the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of New Jersey residents with inadequate incomes according to research on the Real Cost of Living (RCL) in New Jersey. The report builds on the RCL report series that was inaugurated in 1999 and most recently updated in 2008, and uses the alternative measure of income sufficiency calculated in these reports to analyze the characteristics of three different groups — those with incomes below the federal poverty level, those with incomes above the federal poverty levels but below the RCL and those with incomes above the RCL. This analysis provides a more accurate estimate of households whose incomes fall short of self-sufficiency and how they compare to other, more economically-stable groups. Factors such as employment, demographic characteristics, educational attainment and geographic distribution of income inadequacy across the state are examined to provide insight into patterns income insufficiency in the state and policy choices that will help improve the economic situation of households that lack essential financial resources. The report’s unit of analysis is households rather than individuals, and the Study Population is restricted to households with working-age adults that have no work-inhibiting disability.
  
  
• Supporting New Jersey's Workers: The Importance and Adequacy of the State Minimum Wage, 2008
  
  This report evaluates the adequacy minimum wage in New Jersey and discusses a number of factors that must be considered in assessing its adequacy. This includes an analysis of cost of living in New Jersey, changes in the components of cost of living, comparison of New Jersey to other states with respect to the above, analysis of purchasing power of minimum wage over time and comparison of minimum wage to other benchmarks of income like the Federal Poverty Threshold and Lower Living Standard Income Level. The report recommends an immediate increase in minimum wage in New Jersey, instituting automatic annual increases based on New Jersey regional Consumer Price Index and continued oversight of the New Jersey’s Minimum Wage Advisory Commission.
  
  Archive of Earlier NJPRI Reports

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