§ 526. Basic needs budget and livable wage; report

(a) For the purposes of this section:

(1) “Basic needs” means the essentials needed to run a household, including food, housing, transportation, child care, utilities, health and dental care, taxes, rental and life insurance, personal expenses, and savings.

(2) “Basic needs budget” is the amount of money needed by a Vermont household to maintain a basic standard of living, calculated using current State and federal data sources for the costs of basic needs.

(3) “Livable wage” means the hourly wage required for a full-time worker to pay for one-half of the basic needs budget for a two-person household with no children and employer-assisted health insurance averaged for both urban and rural areas.

(b) On or before January 15 of each new legislative biennium, beginning in 2009, the Joint Fiscal Office shall report the calculated basic needs budgets of various representative household configurations and the calculated livable wage for the previous year. This calculation may serve as an additional indicator of wage and other economic conditions in the State and shall not be considered official State guidance on wages or other forms of compensation.

(c) The methodology for calculating basic needs budgets shall be built on methodology described in the November 9, 1999 Livable Income Study Committee report, modified as appropriate by any statutory changes made by the General Assembly and subsequent modifications adopted by the Joint Fiscal Committee under subsection (d) of this section.

(d) The Joint Fiscal Committee may adopt modifications to the methodology used to determine the basic needs budget calculations under subsection (c) of this section to account for public policy changes, data availability, or any other factors that have had an impact on any aspects of the methodology. Changes or revisions in methodology adopted by the Committee shall be effective no later than November in the year preceding the release of the report. (Added 2005, No. 59, § 1; amended 2007, No. 202 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; 2019, No. 144 (Adj. Sess.), § 11(c) (redesignated from 2 V.S.A. § 505).)