Op-Ed: Why the federal poverty line doesn’t begin to tell the story of poverty in the U.S.
LA TimesWorkers at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County pack up boxes that will be delivered to local senior centers in April 2020. Recently released Census Bureau data show that more than 37 million people in America lived at or below the federal poverty line in 2020. But the federal poverty line doesn’t begin to tell the story of poverty in the U.S. Half of U.S. families struggle to make ends meet. Low-wage workers get lost in the gap between economic self-sufficiency and the federal poverty line, which is calculated using an outdated equation that may have never made sense. According to available census data, roughly 51% of workers earn less than $35,000 per year, which is only slightly above the federal poverty line for a family of four — and less than they need to be able to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment.
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