How many in Nashville earn less than a living wage? New report details the 'high cost of low wages'

Hundreds of thousands of workers in Nashville's top 20 occupations earn less than the area's living wage, a third of students in Metro Nashville Public Schools are economically disadvantaged, and about one in five kids in Nashville don't have enough to eat.
These are just a few of the statistics highlighted in Metro Social Services' latest Community Needs Evaluation, a report on Nashville's socioeconomic well-being published by the office annually. The office released the full report on May 14 and unveiled it during an event in western Nashville.
This year, the report focuses on 'the high cost of low wages' in Nashville — that is, that the city experiences a high cost of living because of its large number of low-wage jobs.
'Like so much of our work, responding on the topic of wages will require a network of partners larger than Metro,' Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell said at the event. 'We will be working to share this evaluation broadly, to make sure people understand the high cost of low wages.'
Here's a look at some of the highlights of the report, which is available to view in full on the city's website.
The report lays out the difference between a 'living wage' — defined as what a full-time worker needs to earn to cover the costs of their basic needs — and federal poverty guidelines. To calculate that difference, the office utilized the MIT Living Wage Calculator, a widely used tool aimed at addressing cost of living disparities in American cities.
What the research team behind the report found was that a single, childless worker living in Davidson County requires an annual income of $52,858 to achieve a living wage — a number more than three times higher than the federal poverty guideline for the same individual, which is just $15,650.
'The official poverty guidelines used by the federal government are highly inadequate in relation to the ways that economic hardship is experienced by a large portion of the Davidson County population,' the report reads.
The report calls the federal poverty guideline, which is based on a calculation established in the 1960s, as 'outdated and misleading.' In part, that's because official poverty guidelines make no distinction between urban and rural areas, and as a result don't account for regional cost of living differences.
That means when an individual or family does manage to earn enough money to achieve a living wage, they've fallen off what the report refers to as 'the benefits cliff' — when an increased income triggers an abrupt loss of public benefits, which typically are tied not to a region's living wage but to the federal poverty rate.
The report notes that 326,000 workers employed in the Nashville area's top 20 occupations are hanging off that cliff.
That's because they're earning a wage well under the area's living wage, but not nearly low enough to qualify for poverty relief programs. For example, the largest group of workers — 37,980 laborers who move freight, stock and other materials — earn an annual median wage of just $39,350. No group in the top 20 area occupations, ranging from retail and fast food workers to security guards and construction laborers, earns an annual median wage higher than $49,090.
The report notes this is because Nashville's economy is closely tied to low-paying job sectors like tourism, retail, health service and transportation, exasperated by further demand for low-wage service jobs as high-paying technology jobs and corporate headquarters move into the community.
Many of those workers face worse health outcomes, the report reads. Overall, 16.2% of Nashville workers earning $25,000 to $50,000 lack health insurance, and one in five Davidson County residents experiences poor or fair health — worse than that of the state of Tennessee or the nation.
Other knock-on effects of low wages, according to the report, lead to instability in more ways than just inside Nashvillians' wallets.
Along with lacking savings both in case of an emergency and toward retirement, low wages can lead to food insecurity. In Nashville, that means one out of every five kids doesn't have enough to eat. For families with kids, rising child care costs may also be an insurmountable cost.
And that all leads to intergenerational impacts, according to the report. Kids in living wage poverty are more likely to be in poorer health than other children. They also see lower levels of educational attainment, coupled with higher high school dropout rates. In the report, that's reflected in the rate of MNPS students who are economically disadvantaged — 32% of them, who collectively went to college at a rate of 39.3% in the 2023 graduating class, compared to a 65.3% rate for their non-disadvantaged peers.
With limited access to employment opportunities, the report notes, those individuals can end up with fewer positive role models and higher rates of incarceration and violence.
Austin Hornbostel is the Metro reporter for The Tennessean. Have a question about local government you want an answer to? Reach him at ahornbostel@tennessean.com.
Get Davidson County news delivered to your inbox every Wednesday.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: 326,000 Nashville workers earn less than a living wage, report finds

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