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FAQ Low-wage Work Uncertainty often Traps Low-wage Workers

What are poverty rates among working adults?
Official data by work experience

The Census Bureau reports poverty rates by work experience for people ages 18 to 64. In 2024, the overall poverty rate for people ages 18 to 64 was 9.6% (lower than the rate of 10.6% for all persons).  

The poverty rates by work experience for that age group ranged from 1.8% to 28.2%.

 

 

Updated 12/15/25

For more information:

Shrider, EA and Bijou, C. Poverty in the United States: 2024. Census Bureau, September 2025. Accessed 12/15/25.

FAQ The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives Low-wage Work Uncertainty often Traps Low-wage Workers Who are the working poor in America?

What are the characteristics of minimum wage workers?
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

In 2024, about 82,000 U.S. workers age 16 and over earned exactly the prevailing federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Another 760,000 had wages below the federal minimum. Together these workers make up 1.0% of all hourly paid workers.

The proportion of hourly workers paid minimum wage or less is far below the level of 13% in 1979 when data was first collected on a regular basis and somewhat lower than recent years.

What were the characteristics of hourly workers paid at or below minimum wage in 2024?

Age

FAQ Low-wage Work Uncertainty often Traps Low-wage Workers Transitions into & out of Poverty in the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics Report

Who are the working poor in America?
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

The “working poor” are people who spend 27 weeks or more in a year in the labor force either working or looking for work but whose incomes fall below the poverty level. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 6.4 million people who spent at least 27 weeks in the labor force were poor in 2022 (the most recent year in which such figures were published). The working-poor rate—the proportion of the working poor among all people in the labor force for at least 27 weeks—was 4.0 percent in 2022.