It’s easy to talk about the high number of unemployed across the country, but what about those who have jobs but are still struggling to get by? A growing number of working Americans are living uncomfortably close to the poverty line. A study released today by the Working Poor Families Project claims that nearly one in three American families could be considered low-income, meaning they make less than twice the official poverty threshold. People are less concerned with career advancement and more focused on just making sure they can meet their family’s basic needs. “They’re just putting pieces together to stay afloat, to meet basic needs,” said Brandon Roberts, manager of the Working Poor Families Project. And even those who would like to move on to a better job are hamstrung by the risk of losing a consistent paycheck if they strive for more, leading to the continued erosion of America’s middle class. As so often is the case, no one feels the effect of this more than children, 22 million of whom qualify as poor in this country. When will things start to improve? Who knows, but let’s hope, for their sake, it’s soon.
Employed But Struggling: Report Finds 1 in 3 Working Families Near Poverty [HuffPo]
