Government Programs Keep Millions Out of Poverty

Without Government Programs, Millions More Would Be in Poverty In 2014, 48.4 million people (15.3 percent of the U.S. population) were in poverty, as measured by the Supplemental Poverty Measure—a more sophisticated approach to measuring economic well-being than the official federal poverty line. However, that number would have been significantly higher were it not for government programs including Social Security, refundable tax credits (including the Earned Income Tax Credit), and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. In the absence of stronger wage growth for low- and middle-income workers, these safety-net programs play an increasingly important role in helping struggling families afford their basic needs. NEW BOOK Robert Reich on Saving Capitalism Join EPI cofounder Robert Reich, EPI, and the Center for American Progress for a discussion of Reich’s new book, Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few, on Friday, Oct. 2 at noon ET. Reich, a former Secretary of Labor, writes that the critical choices ahead are not about the size of government, but about whom government works for—and that we must choose not between a free market and big government, but between a market organized for broadly based prosperity and one designed to deliver the most gains to the top. To attend the event in Washington, D.C., RSVP here. Or watch online here. Workers 65 and Older Are 3 Times as Likely to Die From an On-the-Job Injury as the Average Worker David CooperPoverty Day Numbers Show the Need for Higher Wages Josh Bivens and Lawrence MishelWrong Question Answered Badly: Industry Data Can’t Be Used To Infer Individuals’ Productivity Josh BivensThe Real Stakes for This Week’s Fed Decision on Interest Rates