Recent findings from the Pew Research Center show a growing concern about the cost of healthcare, food and consumer goods, and housing across the United States. Many people are struggling to afford essential expenses. In fact, the Urban Institute reports that about 50% of American families can’t afford the true cost of living. This type of financial or economic insecurity can have a direct impact on the likelihood of experiencing domestic violence as well as a survivor’s ability to escape violence.
how Location impacts Financial Security
To understand this connection, we need to look at how economic insecurity affects people and communities. Our personal financial or economic security often depends on where we live and the laws, public policies, economic structures, and institutional investments in our community. Consider the following examples:
- Gas prices: Costs depend on where you live, how many stations are nearby, your car’s fuel efficiency, and the length of your commute. Access to public transit, bike lanes, walkways, and EV charging also matters. Farmers running diesel tractors, combines, and irrigation systems, along with semitruck drivers, are feeling the squeeze most right now.
- Housing: Affordability depends on location. Urban areas are costly and often price out low- and middle-income earners, while rural areas face limited housing inventory, soaring construction costs, and low property values. Current high interest rates and prices are straining housing affordability nationwide.
- Healthcare: Access depends on having insurance, affording adequate coverage, finding a nearby provider who treats your condition and accepts your plan, and getting an appointment. Rural counties lack sufficient elder care, maternity care, and dental care, and recent Medicaid cuts have strained rural hospitals.
- Employment: The economy, new technology, and government policies can impact jobs, and their effects differ by profession and region. Farmers, for example, are facing soaring costs, trade disputes, and shrinking profits. The Tyson beef plant in Lexington, Nebraska, closed permanently, putting 3,200 workers out of their jobs. The town of 10,500 anticipated an economic slowdown as displaced workers left.
Steady labor markets, predictable housing, affordable and accessible health and childcare systems, and dependable food supplies increase our personal economic security and sustain health and safety throughout our communities.
How Economic Insecurity Impacts Certain Groups
While laws, public policies, economic structures, and institutional investments can affect entire communities, specific groups may experience the impact differently. These groups may face additional barriers to economic security. That’s why strategies to strengthen economic support should be tailored to community members’ specific needs.
For an example of this in practice, we can look at the Tyson Foods beef plant closure. The most impacted community members were the 3,200 displaced workers, and the closure sent ripples of economic instability through the community. Many of these workers were immigrants, spoke English as a second language, and had few transferable skills outside of the meatpacking industry. In response, the Nebraska Department of Labor and partner organizations provided individualized retraining, upskilling, and support, including basic skills assessments and English language and multilingual resume‑writing workshops. By building economic support for people most affected by economic instability, the Nebraska Department of Labor not only increased the economic security of displaced workers but also strengthened Lexington’s overall economic stability.
How Gender plays a role
In Nebraska, women often experience economic insecurity at higher rates than men. According to the Women’s Fund of Omaha’s Unequal Plains: Examining the Economic Gender Gap in Nebraska:
- Nebraska women earn $16,853 less per year than men (median earnings), a 38% gap. The gap is even bigger for Black, Native American/Indigenous, and Latina women. Some of this may be due to unpaid caregiving work that women tend to carry and the different types of jobs women and men tend to hold. But even when comparing men and women with similar backgrounds, working similar roles for similar hours, the gender pay gap remains at $13,570.
- In Nebraska, women are 13% more likely than men to live at or near the poverty level. They are more likely to use public assistance to meet basic needs. This makes their economic security especially precarious because policy changes and discrimination in income sources, including landlords, healthcare providers, and others refusing to accept public benefits as payment, can undermine it.
- Women pay about 19% more than men for housing in Nebraska. More women live with children in their homes and must find housing that accommodates more people, which adds to the cost. Women are also more likely to use housing assistance, which some landlords may refuse to honor.
- About 1 in 3 insured women rely on Medicaid or Medicare, and many still struggle to afford or get adequate care. Coverage is precarious and limited. Women and children will be disproportionately impacted by the recent and significant cuts to Medicaid.
How Economic Stability Impacts the Risk of Violence
In addition to experiencing higher rates of economic insecurity, women in Nebraska also experience interpersonal violence at higher rates than men. An estimated 81.5% of women and 66.7% of men experience some form of intimate partner or sexual violence in their lifetime, according to our 2020 Statewide Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey. Nebraska women also experience violence earlier in life and more frequently and more severely throughout their lifetime than their male counterparts. While this is not solely due to women experiencing economic insecurity at higher rates than men, it’s also not a coincidence.
The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey found that recent economic insecurity increased rates of interpersonal violence. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that unequal access to education, pay, and jobs increases the risk of violence. Poverty is linked to sexual violence, sex trafficking, and other types of abuse. For example, when money is tight, women may have to take risks, such as living in unsafe or unstable housing, walking home alone, or trading sex to meet basic needs like food or shelter. Life changes can also strain a family’s finances and thus increase the risk of violence. These could include having a baby, dealing with a short- or long-term illness, or taking on caregiving duties, which often fall to women. These changes can leave women and children with less stable income, work, and housing, which increases their risk of experiencing violence.
For survivors, the impact of economic insecurity is compounded by the violence they may currently be experiencing or trying to escape. For example, financial abuse, such as a partner restricting access to financial assets, hiding financial information, or ruining the survivor’s credit score, can limit survivors’ ability to reach economic security and safety. Missing days at school or work due to violence or legal issues caused by violence can also make it difficult for survivors to reach financial security.
How Economic Stability Protects Against Violence
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, strengthening economic support for people in communities is an effective strategy to prevent sexual and intimate partner violence, community violence, death by suicide, child abuse and neglect, and other adverse childhood experiences.
Policies and programs that improve economic stability for vulnerable communities and provide opportunities to improve education, employment, and income can reduce the risk of domestic violence and support survivors who have already experienced violence. For example:
- Affordable, quality childcare gives kids safe, dependable caregivers. It also helps families stay financially stable.
- Housing programs, like housing vouchers, rental assistance, transitional housing, and supportive housing, help keep people safe.
- Paid family leave increases employment and financial independence for women, who are often caretakers of family and are more likely to experience violence.
- Tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit cut costs for working families. This makes families more financially secure and helps prevent violence.
- Fair pay and living wage policies help close the pay gap between men and women and ensure all workers can afford basic needs.
While these types of policies and programs improve economic stability for many Nebraskans, they are especially beneficial for women who are disproportionately impacted by violence, and for survivors who are already experiencing violence.
Additional Resources
To learn more about the connection between intimate partner violence and economic stability, check out the following resources:
- Intimate Partner & Sexual Violence in Nebraska: Findings from the 2020 Statewide Intimate Partner & Sexual Violence Survey from the Nebraska Coalition
- Prevention Resources for Action from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Unequal Plains: Examining the Economic Gender Gap in Nebraska from the Women’s Fund of Omaha
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