SELF-SUFFICIENCY STANDARD

The Self-Sufficiency Standard for South Carolina is a measure of income adequacy that is based on the costs of basic needs for working families: housing, child care, food, health care, transportation, and miscellaneous items, as well as the cost of taxes and the impact of tax credits. In addition, the report provides for each family type, in each county, the amount of emergency savings required to meet needs during a period of unemployment or other emergency. The report was published in an effort to ensure the best data and analyses are available to enable South Carolina’s families and individuals to make progress toward real economic security. The result is a comprehensive, credible, and user-friendly tool. The measure describes how much income families of various sizes and compositions need to make ends meet without public or private assistance in each county in South Carolina.

The Self-Sufficiency Standard for South Carolina 2024 defines the minimum income needed to realistically support a family, without public or private assistance.

Read the full report

Key Report Findings

The Standard varies by family type; that is, by how many adults and children are in a family and the
age of each child. One adult living in Sumter County needs an hourly wage of $15.11 ($31,441 annually)
to meet their basic needs. For families with children, the amount needed to cover basic needs increases
considerably. If this single adult in Sumter County had a preschooler and a school-age child, the amount
necessary to be economically secure almost doubles, increasing to $27.18 per hour ($56,555 annually), to
cover the cost of child care, a larger housing unit, and increased food and health care costs.

For families with young children, the combined costs of housing and child care typically make up
the most substantial portion of the family’s budget. For a family with two adults, one infant, and one
preschooler in Clarendon County, child care is 21% of the family’s budget while housing is 16%.
The amount needed to meet the costs of basic needs between 2016 and 2024 increased by a larger
amount than predicted using the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
The federal poverty guidelines for three-person families ($24,860 annually) are set at a level well
below what is needed to meet a family’s basic needs.

Even working full time, earning the 2024 federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is not enough to
meet the Standard anywhere in South Carolina, for any family composition, including single adults.

For more information, visit uwasc.org.