More than a quarter of all working families in the United States, including 20 million children, are considered low-income or poor, an independent report has found.
Citing 2002 Census data, the report found that 9.2 million families with at least one working adult and one child under 18 — or 27.4% of such families — fall into the government’s measure of low income. This means they earn less than the federal poverty threshold, or less than $36,784 in 2002.
Of those 9.2 million families, 2.5 million are officially living in poverty, earning less than $18,392 for a family of four. The median US income was $62,732 in 2002.