In 2012, the Poverty Line for a Family of Four Was __________.

Objectives

• Students will learn how the federal government estimates the poverty line.
• Students will calculate alternatives to the federal estimate, in small groups or individually.
• Students will talk over the possible furnishings of underestimating the poverty line.

Materials

• Copies of the How Much Income is Actually Required to Make Ends Meet? (PDF) for modest groups or individual students (The handout can exist adapted for younger students.)

Framework

The federal poverty line is used to make up one's mind individuals' and families' eligibility for particular kinds of aid and services and also is an of import benchmark that helps the nation know how many Americans are struggling financially each twelvemonth, and over time.

In 2012, the federal government set the poverty line for a family unit of four at $23,050. The figure is based on food costs — the government identifies how much it should cost to feed a family of four for one year and and then multiplies that number past three. The formula has been used for decades.

What information technology fails to capture is this: In today's America, food expenses stand for just one-fifth of the average household budget, non a third. Other costs — housing, health care, childcare and transportation — typically eat up larger portions of a family's upkeep.

Suggested Procedures

Step I

Enquire students if they have e'er heard of the federal poverty line. If and so, invite them to share what they know. Review the above framework and objectives with students.

Step Two

Working in diverse small groups, or individually, inquire students to complete the handout (PDF). Be sure to "walk the room" and help students or groups who are struggling with item portions of the word trouble. The answers, along with mathematical solutions, announced beneath.

And then, how much income is actually required to make ends run across?

i: Adjusting the federal estimate

• Based on the government's estimate, what is the annual cost of nutrient for a family of four? ($23,050/3=$7,683.30)
• If almanac food costs stand for i-fifth of a family's expenses, how much money does a family demand to buy food and everything else it needs?

$7,683.xxx = x
20          100

x= ($7,683.30x100)/20 = $38,416.fifty

The adapted federal estimate is $38,416.fifty.

ii: Using other benchmarks
What if the regime used other factors —childcare or housing costs, for example — to calculate the poverty line, instead of food costs?

Typical rental (2 bedroom) costs in the United States today run $949 per month, and a family with 1 four-year-old and one school-aged kid pays an boilerplate of $one,066 per calendar month in childcare costs.

($1,066 x 12 months x 3= $38,376)

($949 x 12 months 10 three= $34,164)

• If the federal estimate was based on childcare toll, non food, the poverty line would exist $38,376.
• If the federal guess was based on housing costs, non food, the poverty line would be $34,164.

Then, how severely does the federal poverty line underestimate income a family actually needs to make ends come across?

$23,050	$38,416.50	$38,376	$34,164
Federal Estimate	Adapted Federal Judge	Childcare Criterion	Housing Benchmark

1. Judged against the adjusted federal gauge, the federal approximate underestimates the income necessary by forty%.

($38,416.50 -$23,050=$fifteen,366.l)/$38,416.50)=.39 (twoscore%)

2. Judged against an guess based on childcare costs, the federal estimate underestimates the income necessary past forty%.

($38,376-$23,050=$xv,326)/$38,376)=.39 (40%)

3. Judged against an estimate based on housing costs, the federal approximate underestimates the income necessary by 52%.

(34,164-$23,050=$11,114)/$34,164)=.33 (33%)

Footstep Three

Remind students that the federal poverty line serves two master purposes: 1) to plant eligibility (or ineligibility) of individuals and families for certain kinds of aid and services, and 2) to assistance the nation gauge the number of Americans who are struggling financially, in a given year and over time.

As a whole form, discuss:

• Based on what nosotros've learned, how likely is it that a family making $25,000 a twelvemonth — an income above the poverty line — would struggle financially? Why? (Very likely — we've learned that it could take anywhere from $23,050 to $38,416 for a family of iv to make ends come across.)


• What are some possible effects of the government underestimating the poverty line? (Answers will vary, but may include: people who need aid and services won't become them; the government won't really know how many people are struggling; information technology paints a healthier economic picture than there really is.)


• Why might the regime be hesitant to change its formula for calculating the poverty line? (Answers will vary, but may include: we're running a deficit, and don't have coin to provide more than assist; it's the way they've always washed it; changing it would hateful changing lots of government programs, and that would exist cumbersome for a big bureaucracy similar the federal government.)


• Do you think the federal government should modify the way information technology calculates the poverty line? Why? (Answers will vary.)

Statistical data in this activeness is fatigued from Ending Poverty, eds. John Edwards, Marion Crain and Arne Fifty. Kalleberg, The New Press, 2007, Income, Expenditures, & Wealth, U.S. Census Bureau, 2004, at www.census.gov and the Agency of Labor Statistics at world wide web.bls.gov.

Extension Activity

To help students empathise that working people with all kinds of jobs tin struggle financially or experience poverty, let time for them to research the median wages of different professions. A proficient place to start is the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Samples include:

Profession: Median Salary

School cook: $24,230
Retail salesperson: $25,130
Hairstylist: $26,460
Preschool teacher: $30,150
City omnibus driver: $37,440
News reporter: $27,600
Realtor: $51,170 (includes commissions)
Fire-eater: $47,720

Note: These salary numbers presume total-time employment (40 hours per week) for 52 weeks per year.

Source for Calculating the Poverty Line

All of the salaries are from this link: http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm

National Housing Conference, Factsheet: Nigh to Least Expensive Rental Markets from Rankings for More Than 200 U.S. Metropolitan Areas,which rents are based on the FY2012 Fair Market Rents from the U.S. Section of Housing and Urban Evolution. More data on how it is calculated is available here: http://www.huduser.org/portal/datasets/fmr.html

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Source: https://www.learningforjustice.org/classroom-resources/lessons/calculating-the-poverty-line

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