Today we again mine the mother lode, the Labor Department’s Consumer Expenditure Survey. In extraordinary detail, it reports what households spent last year for everything.
Let’s look at the electric bills of low-income households in the Northeast, Midwest and West. Low-income includes, for this look, households with income before taxes averaging under $30,000 per year in 2014 – 2015.
We’ll leave aside electric bills in the South. Electric bills there are generally higher where air-conditioners are run harder.
I. Households with income under $10,000
In the Northeast, the electric bills of the 1.8 million households with income under $10,000 averaged around $1.95 daily in 2014 – 2015.
In the Midwest, the electric bills for such households, 2.2 million, averaged $1.80 daily.
In the West, the electric bills for such households, 2.0 million, averaged $2.00 daily.
II. Households with income of $10,000 – 20,000
In the Northeast, the electric bills of the 2.9 million households with income of $10,000 – 20,000 averaged around $2.40 daily.
In the Midwest, the electric bills for such households, 3.6 million, averaged $2.45 daily.
In the West, the electric bills for such households, 3.1 million, averaged $2.30 daily.
III. Households with income of $20,000 – 30,000
In the Northeast, the electric bills of the 2.4 million households with income of $20,000 – 30,000 averaged around $2.90 daily.
In the Midwest, the electric bills for such households, 3.2 million, averaged $2.90 daily.
In the West, the electric bills for such households, 3.2 million, averaged $2.75 daily.
Number-crunching courtesy of Public Utilities Fortnightly.
Steve Mitnick, Editor-in-Chief, Public Utilities Fortnightly
E-mail me: mitnick@fortnightly.com
