Julie Vogtman, Senior Counsel

This week, the Census Bureau will release new data on poverty, income, and health insurance in the U.S. in 2012. As we get ready to crunch numbers, we thought it would be helpful to take a deeper look at what these numbers tell us – and don’t tell us – about poverty. Here are a few FAQs on poverty and the Census Bureau data.

What does the poverty rate measure?

The poverty rate measures the percentage of the U.S. population with income below the federal poverty threshold, often referred to as the “poverty line,” for their family size (e.g., $23,283 in 2012 for a family of four with two kids). Income is calculated before taxes and includes only cash income such as earnings, pension/retirement income, Social Security, unemployment benefits, and child support payments.

Labor Day weekend is almost here, and I hope you have fun plans in store. I, for one, intend to observe the holiday with a few last lazy hours by the pool and a backyard barbecue. Of course, no barbecue is complete without some refreshing beverages – and this Labor Day, I’ll be raising my glass to toast this year’s major progress toward a higher minimum wage.

Perhaps you’re wondering what about the minimum wage could be worth celebrating; after all, the federal minimum wage has been stuck for more than four years at just $7.25 an hour, a level that leaves a full-time working mom with two kids thousands of dollars below the poverty line. $7.25 is more than $3.00 below where the minimum wage would be if it had kept up with inflation over the past four decades, and only about half the wage civil rights leaders called for 50 years ago during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Today’s low minimum wage especially harms women and their families, since women are nearly two-thirds of minimum wage workers – and about two-thirds of tipped workers like restaurant servers, for whom the federal minimum cash wage has been frozen at just $2.13 an hour for 22 years.

But I believe we’re getting closer every day to better pay for low-wage workers, thanks to the tremendous momentum that is building from the ground up. Here’s how change is happening:

From coast to coast, people are calling (loudly!) for higher wages.

Just yesterday, thousands of fast food workers amplified their campaign for higher wages in a national day of action, with strikes in about 60 cities across the country. July 24th – the four-year anniversary of the last federal minimum wage increase – saw similar nationwide protests.