The working poor

The U.S. Census Bureau is expected to announce next week that nearly 57 percent of our citizens who officially are declared to be in poverty are what is termed “working-age” — people between the ages of 18 and 64 compared with 39 percent for working-age people in 1966. The federal government considers anyone who earns less than $10,956 a year to be in poverty. For a family of four, the threshold is $21,954.

"There is a lot of discussion about what the aging of the baby boom should mean for spending on Social Security and Medicare. But there is not much discussion about how the wages of workers, especially those with no more than a high school degree, are not rising," said Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan public policy professor who specializes in poverty. Census numbers show that out of 8.8 million families who are currently poor, about 60 percent had at least one person who was working. "The reality is there are going to be a lot of working poor for the foreseeable future," Danziger said,

Food banks say they see a shift to a new working poor.

"Americans from all walks of life are now finding themselves in need of help for the first time in their lives," said Vicki Escarra, president of Feeding America, a national network of food banks that is based in Chicago. She noted that demand has increased by 46 percent since the recession began in late 2007, with more than 1 in 3 families who get their assistance having one or more adults working. "The reality is we all know someone who has lost a job or a crisis that has caused financial concern. In fact, some people who used to be donors to our Feeding America food banks are themselves now turning to us for help," she said.

Timothy Smeeding, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who specializes in income inequality, called the outlook for younger adults in the U.S. especially troubling. "We risk a new underclass who are not able to support their children, form stable families, buy houses and reach the middle class," Smeeding said.