Who Are the Poor?
Most academic experts and government officials who talk about poverty, as well as many other Americans who refer to poverty, use an “official” poverty line – sometimes called “guidelines” or “thresholds” – established by the federal government in the early 1960s and annually updated to reflect inflation.
The poverty line is not a single number, but a series of dollar amounts that vary by family size (and, in the case of Alaska and Hawaii, by state). Following is the most recent set of official federal guidelines announced by the federal government:
2009 HHS Poverty Guidelines
| Persons in Family or Household | 48 Contiguous States and D.C. |
Alaska | Hawaii |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,830 | $13,530 | $12,460 |
| 2 | 14,570 | 18,210 | 16,760 |
| 3 | 18,310 | 22,890 | 21,060 |
| 4 | 22,050 | 27,570 | 25,360 |
| 5 | 25,790 | 32,250 | 29,660 |
| 6 | 29,530 | 36,930 | 33,960 |
| 7 | 33,270 | 41,610 | 38,260 |
| 8 | 37,010 | 46,290 | 42,560 |
| For each additional person, add | 3,740 | 4,680 | 4,300 |
A Brief Account of the Origin of the Poverty Line
A single person—a smart and dedicated federal employee named Molly Orshansky—invented in 1963–64 the poverty line we use today. A short history is provided in Gordon M. Fisher’s “The Development and History of the Poverty Thresholds.” Essentially, Ms. Orshansky took the cost of a barebones food budget and multiplied it by three, because at the time food was close to one-third of the budget of low-income households.
The poverty line and the American system for counting the poor have both been severely criticized. Many experts, including the National Academy of Sciences, say the poverty line’s dollar amounts are far less than typical families actually need to maintain a decent living standard. The Gallup Poll for instance, has consistently found that the American public thinks that families need much more than the poverty line to “get along.” Professor Timothy Smeeding, the director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Institute for Research on Poverty points out in a 2009 study of poverty in Wisconsin that, while the original poverty line was fully 50% of the American family’s median income, today it has fallen to almost 25% of median income.
The National Academy of Sciences and many other experts also point out that if the dollar value of certain benefits—such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, Food Stamps and so forth—were measured by the Census Bureau when it decides who falls below vs. who rises above the official poverty line, the income of many poor individuals and families would be higher. The case for replacing both the official poverty line and how we count the poor thus grows stronger every year.
In Steve Holt’s report to the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute on updating the poverty line, he concludes that the current measure is no longer valid. Holt recommends a new measure be used in the future. He also recommends that a wider range of cash and non-cash resources be counted in determining who is poor.
