Families above poverty thresholds are just thought to be free of outright material deprivation. Conceptually, these measures are important metrics, but are fundamentally different from EPI’s basic family budgets. Poverty thresholds are generally national income levels used to measure the number and share of Americans who are economically deprived. Poverty thresholds: Limitations and problems ![]() EPI’s family budgets overcome the most substantial limitations of these measures and paint a portrait of what families need in order to live securely yet modestly. Official poverty thresholds such as the federal poverty line and Supplemental Poverty Measure are incomplete indicators of what it takes for families to live free of economic hardship. Even when accounting for higher minimum wages in states and localities, this full-time, full-year minimum-wage worker is paid below what is necessary for one adult to meet her local family budget-and far below what it takes for an adult with even just one child to make ends meet anywhere.īeyond measures of poverty to measures of economic adequacy Annual wages for one full-time, full-year worker earning the federal minimum wage total $15,080. Even in the best of economic times, many parents in low-wage jobs will not earn enough through work to meet basic family needs.Among two-parent, two-child families, child care costs exceed rent in 500 out of 618 family budget areas.In the latter, monthly child care costs for a two-parent, three-child household are $2,784-nearly 90 percent higher than for a two-parent, one-child household. Monthly child care costs for a two-parent, one-child household range from $344 in rural South Carolina to $1,472 in Washington, D.C. Across regions and family types, child care costs account for the greatest variability in family budgets.Housing for this family type is most expensive in San Francisco ($1,956 per month), and is least expensive in Franklin, Poinsett, and Grant counties in Arkansas ($561 per month). For a two-parent, two-child household, housing ranges from 10.2 percent of a family’s budget in Binghamton, N.Y., to 25.6 percent in San Francisco.This is well above the 2014 poverty threshold of $24,008 for this family type. In the median family budget area for this family type, Des Moines, Iowa, a two-parent, two-child family needs $63,741 to secure an adequate but modest living standard. The basic family budget for a two-parent, two-child family ranges from $49,114 (Morristown, Tenn.) to $106,493 (Washington, D.C.).The following is a sample of findings from the 2015 update of EPI’s Family Budget Calculator: It then illustrates the budgets’ most important feature-their high degree of customizability by family type and community-by demonstrating how family budgets vary significantly depending on family composition and geographical area. ![]() This issue brief begins by explaining in greater detail the advantages of EPI’s basic family budgets as compared with the federal poverty line and the Supplemental Poverty Measure. The rich detail afforded by these geographic and family-type customizations, the relative accessibility of these numbers, and the rigor and transparency with which they are developed make the family budgets presented in this report and via the Family Budget Calculator uniquely valuable to non-experts and academics alike. communities and 10 family types (either one or two adults with up to four children, including, for the first time, adults without children). EPI’s basic family budgets overcome many of these shortcomings by providing a wealth of geographic and family-type detail they are calculated for 618 U.S. The budgets estimate community-specific costs for 10 family types in 618 locations across the U.S.ĮPI’s Family Budget Calculator is particularly useful given the inadequacies of both the federal poverty line and the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) when it comes to measuring families’ fundamental needs (CCED 2013). View interactive Use the family budget calculator
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