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To compute the data measuring the real-world impact of Modest Needs, we first calculated the amount of pay that a family of three, with one person working and claiming three dependents, takes home each month from a job that pays $10 an hour, at 40 hours per week, in each state in the United States.
To aid in these calculations, we used this paycheck calculator which is designed for precisely this purpose.
To calculate a national average, we simply computed the amount a working family as defined above would take home in each state, totaled these values and then divided by 51 - 50 states, plus the District of Columbia.
To obtain an average TANF (welfare) and Food Stamp allocation for a newly unemployed family, we relied upon The Urban Institute, which maintains a database of TANF and Food Stamp grant allocations, by state. The data available there is from 1999, which is the most recent data publicly available.
Using this database, we calculated the amount of the TANF grant/Food Stamp allocation that a family of three as defined above but earning no income would receive for each state and the District of Columbia. We then totaled and averaged these values.
The average values are the bases of the calculations that appear in the tables you'll see throughought the Impact section of the Modest Needs website.
Because TANF and Food Stamp grants are determined by the states themselves, and because each state's tax laws differ significantly, the national averages used to compute the data below can give only an approximation of the impact of Modest Needs on an individual, and on that individual's community.
We are currently working on an addition to the Modest Needs website that will calculate these figures to a greater degree of accuracy by allowing users to see - by state - the cost of unemployment, and the impact of a gift made by Modest Needs to an individual living in that state, but this page will not be available until early 2005, at best.
These calculations have been checked and re-checked by a series of persons well-versed in both mathematics and statistics. While all statistics involve some degree of assumption, these persons have assured us that given our data set, these calculations are an accurate reflection of the impact your gifts to Modest Needs have had to date on the families this community has been able to assist.
