Shown is a sign at a grocery store noting the acceptance of electronic benefit transfer, or EBT, cards, on Dec. 4, 2019 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
New data released by the U.S. Census Bureau shows inflation-adjusted incomes in Maine rising faster than the national average. The number of Mainers without health insurance remains below national averages, but challenges remain.
Incomes generally rise, outpacing national trends
According to the American Community Survey , median household income in Maine was just under $74,000 in 2023, a 5% increase from 2019 after accounting for the effects of inflation. Nationally, median income is still 1% below 2019 levels. However, for Mainers in the bottom 20%, incomes dropped 1% from 2019 to just over $17,000, likely reflecting barriers like caregiving, medical issues, and immigration status that kept some from being able to participate in the strong labor market.
Labor force and employment
Incomes have risen especially for working Mainers. A robust minimum wage and a strong labor market has meant earnings (solely from employment and not including supports such as Social Security and TANF) have risen fastest among workers with the lowest incomes. For the bottom 10% of full-time year-round workers, earnings rose by 9% after inflation between 2019 and 2023 — three times as fast as the growth for workers at the 75 th percentile.
What’s more, among the traditional working-age population (16- to 64-year-olds), the share of Mainers who worked continued to increase, as did the share of workers who were able to find full-time, year-round work.
The overall labor force participation rate (for all Mainers age 16 and older) remained relatively low (62%), however, as more of Maine’s aging workforce entered retirement.
Poverty rate largely holds steady, with some progress and other warning signs
Maine’s poverty rate remains equivalent to pre-pandemic levels, at 10.4%, though there are indicators that particularly disadvantaged groups are seeing progress. Child poverty remains at historically low levels in Maine (12.6%). The share of children under five living in poverty dropped significantly between 2019 and 2023, from 17% to 12%, with 3,000 fewer young children growing up in poverty.
On the other hand, the share of Mainers living in “deep poverty” — scraping by with fewer than half the resources needed to reach the poverty line — increased slightly between 2019 and 2023, from 4% to 4.8%. This is in line with the finding that the households with the lowest income have not been able to keep up with inflation.
The Census Bureau does not publish detailed information on the poverty rate for racialized groups of Mainers in its recent release (more analysis will be possible when the survey’s microdata is released in October), but what data we do have suggests Maine made progress reducing poverty for people of color. For example, among Mainers who identify as Black alone, the poverty rate between 2021 and 2023 averaged 26% — far from the 44% between 2014 and 2016. However, this is still two and a half times higher than the rate for white non-Hispanic Mainers. There has been similar progress for other groups of Mainers of Color as well.
Health insurance coverage at record highs, but gaps remain
Maine continued to have a historically low share of its population without health insurance. In 2023, just 5.9% of the population lacked health insurance, compared to 8% before the pandemic and as many as 11% before the implementation of the major provision of the Affordable Care Act in 2014.
While the 2023 figure still leaves 80,000 Mainers without health insurance, this is down from 107,000 Mainers in 2019 and shows the success of both Maine’s Medicaid expansion and extended Affordable Care Act subsidies at the federal level. As states have been “unwinding” pandemic-era protections which allowed many people to remain on Medicaid even if their incomes rose above the traditional eligibility threshold, large numbers of people have lost health care coverage in many states. Maine’s generally thoughtful approach to “unwinding” has reduced any negative impacts in the state.
It is worth noting that widespread insurance coverage is not synonymous with affordable access to care. In 2022, 80,000 Maine adults had to skip a doctor’s appointment because they couldn’t afford it, 60,000 of whom had insurance coverage.
Conclusion
The latest data shows the impact good policies can have to keep Mainers ahead of inflation. Strong labor markets and worker protections like the minimum wage have ensured inequalities have narrowed, and most Mainers have stayed ahead of inflation in the past four years. Yet lawmakers shouldn’t pat themselves on the back too much. Many of the most vulnerable Mainers with the lowest income must still make difficult choices in the face of rising costs of essentials like groceries and rent. Policymakers need to maintain the gains made while ensuring no one is left behind.
This commentary was originally published at the Maine Center for Economic Policy blog.
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