This became the poverty guideline for a family of four. The guidelines are updated each year to take inflation into account. Although Orshansky's poverty guidelines were not intended to be an official government measurement of poverty, they were given official status throughout the federal government in 1969. At that time, Social Security administrators and others estimated that the guidelines would be useful for five to ten years at most before they would need to be revised to reflect changing prices, standards of living and family spending. However, although a few changes have been made, they remain largely intact.
Food now accounts for more like one-sixth of the family budget.
The guidelines fail to take into account the extra costs of two-earner families, such as clothing, transportation and, perhaps biggest of all, childcare. The guidelines do not recognize geographic differences, even though the cost of food, clothing and housing varies from state to state and within states. In a high cost state such as California, the official poverty thresholds are probably too low. Oregon is both a high cost and low cost state. We generally have higher living costs west of the Cascades and lower costs east of the mountains.