The Working Poor. Invisible in America

This is a good reference book for those who are concerned about the poor in America. The copyright is 2004, so it is recent. How is poverty measured? The Poverty Level Review Committee sets the official poverty level based on outdated concepts from 1955. The original standard was three times the food budget for a family of four. This mythical family had a working father and stay-at-home mom. (Thus there was no provision for child care, among other flaws.) You might be interested in taking a look at that. The Institute for Public Policy has the information. They state: "The bottom line is that the current system of measurement is out-dated and seriously underestimates the count of the number of poor people in this country. If the government were to acknowledge the true extent of poverty, it would need to dedicate a greater share of its resources to pay the costs of programs to help the poor. It is unfortunately cheaper to use an outdated system of measurement so that fewer people will be in poverty by government standards."
There is a way to estimate how many working poor there are in the United States. In fact, the IRS knows.
That's because the employers have to turn in W2 forms and they can figure it out from there. If you don't work, you don't get a W2. The working poor are acknowledged as being entitled to an Earned Income Tax Credit. 19 million received the benefit for the year 2002. That was 75% of the eligible households. 100% equals 25,333,333 working poor households. Now, of course, there are millions of people working off the clock. No W2s. They are not considered in these figures. And there are plenty who don't fit the households category as well.