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How We Measure Poverty by Ronni Mott
erty—or falling deeper into poverty—in the future) for a more complete picture of people’s well-being. U.S. poverty guidelines are simplified versions of the poverty threshold used for administrative purposes, such as qualifying people for federal aid. The 2012 poverty guidelines for all states except Alaska and Hawaii are below.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
$11,170 15,130 19,090 23,050 27,010 30,970 34,930 38,890
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Poorest 20%
Middle 20%
Richest 20%
A family of four with an income of $23,050 has a monthly income of $1,920, or about $443 per week. A single person with an income of $11,170 has a monthly income of $931, or about $215 per week. A person earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour provides a person working 40 hours per week gross wages of $290 a week, or $15,080 per year.
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SOURCE: STATEOFWORKINGAMERICA.ORG
SOURCES:WORLD BANK; U.S. DEPT. OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES; FREAKONOMICS.COM
Who Is Poor in Mississippi? 0LVVLVVLSSLDQV ZLWK LQFRPHV EHORZ WKH IHGHUDO SRYHUW\ OHYHO RI WKH SRSXODWLRQ
&KDQJH LQ LQFRPH E\ KRXVHKROG LQFRPH JURXS ODWH V WR PLG V Poorest 20%
19.1% 12.7%
-17.3%
Middle 20%
32.7%
Richest 20%
75.3%
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Incomes of Mississippi’s Richest Households Dwarf Those of Its Poorest After decades of widening inequality, Mississippi’s richest households have dramatically bigger incomes than its poorest households. The richest 5 percent of households have average incomes 13.9 times as large as the bottom 20 percent of households and 4.9 times as large as the middle 20 percent of households.
Middle 20%
Richest 5%
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SOURCE: KAISER FAMILY FOUNDATION STATEHEALTHFACTS.ORG
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Poorest 20%
COURTESY CENTER ON BUDGET AND POLICY PRIORITIES
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SOURCES: SPOTLIGHTONPOVERTY.ORG; U.S. CENSUS BUREAU
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jacksonfreepress.com
-17.3%
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SOURCE: STATEOFWORKINGAMERICA.ORG
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INCOME INEQUALITY HAS GROWN IN MISSISSIPPI ! ,OST $ECADE FOR -ISSISSIPPI´S ,OW AND -IDDLE )NCOME (OUSEHOLDS
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FOR THE 48 CONTIGUOUS STATES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA POVERTY GUIDELINE
SOURCE: STATEOFWORKINGAMERICA.ORG
2012 POVERTY GUIDELINES PERSONS IN FAMILY/HOUSEHOLD
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T
he federal poverty threshold is a calculation based on the cost of food in “nutritionally adequate diets� for a family of three, developed in the early 1960s by Mollie Orshansky of the Social Security Administration. The baseline assumption is that a family of three will spend about a third of its income on food. Although lots of folks have tinkered with the formula and the numbers have been updated in line with the Consumer Price Index, the baseline assumption has not changed since the ’60s. Critics point out that the poverty threshold is, at best, outdated and inaccurate for many people. It doesn’t account for costs that have risen faster than food, such as housing, transportation, health care or child care, nor is it indexed for different parts of the country with widely varying costs of living (although the threshold is slightly higher for Alaska and Hawaii). The World Bank suggests that only measuring poverty provides an incomplete picture of how people fare. In addition to poverty (which it defines as whether households or individuals have enough resources or abilities to meet their needs), the World Bank includes measurements of inequality (the distribution of income, consumption or other attributes across the population) and vulnerability (the probability or risk of being in pov-
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