The Challenge of Measuring "Working Poverty" in America

Keywords

inequality, labor, poverty, welfare

Abstract

Poverty is commonly explained as a matter of joblessness, while work for wages is viewed as a pathway out of poverty and toward upward mobility. Indeed, since the end of open-ended welfare benefits in 1996, U.S. public assistance presumes that creating incentives for poor adults, including mothers, to enter the paid labor force is the best way to reduce poverty and dependence on government. Yet many citizens do not understand that most poor adults already work. In fact, by some accounts the so-called working poor outnumber the non-working poor in the U.S. Effectively reducing poverty therefore requires addressing the problems of those who work yet remain poor.

Original Publication Citation

Theide, Brian C., Daniel T. Lichter, Scott R. Sanders, “The Challenge of Measuring ‘Working Poverty’ in America.” A report for the Scholars Strategic Network. 2015.

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

2015-06-30

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/7617

Publisher

Scholars Strategy Network

Language

English

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Sociology

University Standing at Time of Publication

Associate Professor

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