Poverty in America

Living Wage Calculator

Data Sources

Food

Data are from USDA's low-cost food plan. Values used are the official USDA food plan costs as of August, 2001, which we then adjusted to 2004 dollars using the CPI-U.

Child Care

Data are from a report written by the Children's Defense Fund (CDF). The report uses 2000 state estimates for family care, which we then adjusted to 2004 dollars using the CPI-U.

Medical Care

We extracted this data from BLS 1999 Consumer Expenditure survey, and then adjusted the values to 2004 dollars using the CPI-U.

Health Insurance

Data are taken from the Online Hearlth Insurance Component Analytical Tool from Agency for Healthcare Research, 1998. We then adjusted the values to 2004 dollars using the CPI-U.

Housing

The state-level FMR (fair-market rent) data are taken from the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, which uses HUD 2005 FMR data.

The county- and place-level data are taken from HUD Fair-Market Rents, FY 2006.

A select few places use HUD Fair-Market Rents, FY 2002. We then adjusted the values to 2004 dollars using the CPI-U.

Transportation

These were computed using the ECONorthwest per mile operational costs. Publication was in 1998 (?). We then adjusted the values to 2004 dollars using the CPI-U.

Other

These costs represent other common family expenses based on food and housing costs. Data are from the 1999 Consumer Expenditure Survey, which we then adjusted to 2004 dollars using the CPI-U.

Income by Industry

These data are based on 1998 estimates, which we then adjusted to 2004 dollars using the CPI-U.

Poverty Level

These figures are taken from 2000 Census and then adjusted to 2004 dollars using the CPI-U.