For Immediate Release Contact Sean O'Leary - (304) 400-8899 Charleston, WV - While West Virginia's poverty rate declined in 2018 it remains among the highest in the nation, according to Census data released today. An estimated 312,118 West Virginians lived in poverty in 2018, for a total poverty rate of 17.8 percent. While poverty had…
News Releases
For Immediate Release Media Contact: Sean O'Leary, 304-400-8899 (Charleston, WV) After an increase in the number of West Virginians without health insurance in 2017, the number was unchanged in 2018, further stalling the historic gains made under the Affordable Care Act, according to Census data released today. Today's data release shows that 114,000 West Virginians…
For Immediate Release Contact: Kelly Allen, 304-612-4180 Charleston, WV - Wage theft is one of the most prevalent but under-reported problems confronting low-wage workers. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the estimated value of wages stolen through violations of federal and state minimum wage laws was $15 billion in 2015, easily eclipsing the $12.7 billion…
For Immediate Release Media Contact: Kelly Allen; 304-612-4180 Charleston, WV – Many West Virginia residents are at risk of not being counted in the 2020 census due to inadequate funding and fears about participating following Trump’s failed citizenship question, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. To improve participation and help ensure a…
For Immediate Release Media Contact: Caitlin Cook (304) 543-4879 (Charleston, WV) - Following Congress passing the 2018 farm bill, Kelly Allen, Policy Outreach Coordinator at the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, released the following statement: "The farm bill agreement reached this week and passed by Congress today will help hundreds of thousands of…
For Immediate Release Media Contact: Caitlin Cook (304) 543-4879 (Charleston, WV) - Following House and Senate leaders' announcement of an agreement on the 2018 farm bill, Kelly Allen, Policy Outreach Coordinator at the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, along with partners, released the following statement: "The farm bill agreement announced this week is…
For Immediate Release Media Contact: Caitlin Cook (304) 543-4879 (Charleston, WV) - West Virginia has one of the largest gender pay gaps in the nation and the highest of all surrounding states, according to a new West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy report released today. The report, Climbing the Mountain: Closing the Gender Pay Gap in West Virginia, shows in 2017,…
For Immediate Release Media Contact: Caitlin Cook (304) 543-4879 (Charleston, WV) - West Virginia's population is increasingly living in urban areas, with those urban areas experiencing all the state's job growth in the past quarter century, leaving rural West Virginia behind in many key areas, according to a report released today from the West Virginia Center on Budget and…
For Immediate Release Media Contacts: Caitlin Cook (304) 543-4879 (Charleston, WV) - The lowest-income West Virginians pay 21 percent more in taxes as a percent of their income compared to the state's wealthiest residents, according to a new study released today by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. The study, Who…
West Virginia's inadequate public investment in higher education over the last decade has contributed to rising tuition prices, often leaving students with little choice but to take on more debt or give up on their dreams of going to college, according to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report released today. The problem is especially serious…