September 12, 2023
Americans are getting poorer and it’s getting harder to make ends meet.
Those aren’t opinions. Those are facts based on the brand-new dismal income and poverty report from the US Census Bureau that was released today.
Now – keep in mind, everything I’m about to talk about is from the year 2022. We will get the information from the census bureau about poverty and income rates for 2023 next year.
In no particular order – I’m just going to run down some of the numbers that will either shock you or justify your feelings that –yeah—p things were tough in 2022.
The poverty rate rose to 12.4% in 2022 that’s up from 7.8% in 2021, the largest one-year jump on record and accounts for about 40 million Americans. The child poverty rate more than doubled in 2022 from 5.2% in 2021 to 12.4% in 2022. The Census Bureau says there are specific reasons for that increased poverty rate. The expiration of: the monthly child tax credit, the earned income tax credit, rental assistance and the end of those stimulus payments all played a roll. Overall poverty now looks a lot like it did in 2019. These higher poverty rates are obviously also related to the increase in the cost of essentials like food and housing. So what does it mean to be considered at poverty level? The supplemental poverty measure (SPM) measures income and benefits plus government programs, such as tax refunds and food stamps. So under the SPM measure, families of four who rents is still considered at the poverty line in 2022 if they have an annual income of $34,518.
Now let’s talk about overall household income. Though the job market and the economy were strong in 2022, the real median household income fell by 2.3% in 2022. In 2021 the annual median income was $76,330. In 2022 – the annual median income was $74,580. And yes – that is adjusted for inflation to reflect real cost of living. Which as we all know increased 7.8% between 2021 and 2022. This cost-of-living adjustment for inflation was the largest the Census Bureau has made since 1981. But if you want to talk about post-tax household income – it was actually 8.8% lower in 2022 than it was in 2021.
When it comes to wages — real median earnings for all workers including part time and full time decreased overall 2.2% between 2022 and 2021. And the report found a 3.4% increase in full time, year round workers in 2022 that means 3.4% more people entered the full time year round workforce or switched from part time to full time. In 2022 65.6% of working women were employed full time, year-round. That is the largest share on record!
Read the poverty and income report here.
