More than 10 percent of working families were below the poverty line in 2011, and nearly a third weren't earning double the poverty threshold. The number of low-income working families in the U.S. has increased to 10.4 million in 2011, up from 10.2 million in 2010. The total number of people in low-income working families is now 47.5 million, and 23.5 million of those family members are children, a new report from the Working Poor Families Project finds.
This means that nearly one-third, 32 percent, of all working families may not earn enough money to meet their most basic needs.
Fox News pundits and Mitt Romney's of the world take note:
"There is a common misconception—magnified during the recent presidential election—that low-income families are “takers” who do not work, instead relying on government assistance to meet their needs. But in 2011, more than 7 in 10 low-income families and of all poor families were working. They simply didn’t earn enough money to pay for basic living expenses."
Inequality is also increasing, as higher-income families receive a larger share of income relative to families at the bottom of the income distribution.
The wealthiest twenty-percent of working families "took home nearly half (48%) of all income, while those in the bottom 20 percent received less than 5 percent of the economic pie."
It's the same old refrain, the rich are getting richer, while the poor are getting poorer...and growing in numbers.
Life should not be this difficult for hard-working people. Our economy may be improving for some, but with over 47 million people completely left out of that recovery, we remain a broken nation.
