The lowest wage that a worker can earn is generally the federal minimum wage. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 first established a minimum wage of 25 cents per hour, which has been raised numerous times eventually reaching its current level of $7.25 per hour. Since 1980 the federal government has increased the federal minimum wage various times; however, the actual purchase power after adjusting for inflation (i.e., the real value) of the minimum wage has trended downward (see fig. 1). Many states have enacted their own minimum wage laws, and under the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, an individual is generally covered by the higher of the state or federal minimum-wage rates. As of January 1, 2017, according to the Department of Labor, 29 states and the District of Columbia had minimum wage rates above the federal minimum rate, and 2 states had minimum wage rates below the federal minimum rate. State minimum wages ranged from $5.15 per hour in Georgia and Wyoming to $11.50 per hour in the District of Columbia (see fig. 2). According to BLS data, hourly workers earning at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour made up 1.6 percent of total wage and salary workers.in 2016. The number of minimum wage workers since 1995 ranged from a low of 1.7 million in 2006 to a high of 4.8 million in 1997 (see fig. 3). According to BLS, more than one-half of hourly workers earning the federal minimum wage were employed part-time in 2016, in contrast to about one-quarter of all hourly workers. By working part-time—defined by BLS as 1 to 34 hours per week—these workers are less likely to receive health insurance and other benefits from their employers. Research has also shown that many contingent workers, including some part-time workers, experience fluctuations in their earnings and employment status, making them more likely to seek assistance from federally funded social safety net programs, if eligible. As we previously reported, the official poverty measure used to provide information on how many people are “in poverty” in the United States was developed in the 1960s, based on the cost of food at that time. Each year Census updates its poverty thresholds—the income thresholds by which households are considered to be in poverty depending on family size. In 2016, the poverty thresholds ranged from $11,511 to $53,413, depending on family size and the age of the head of household (see table 1). The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) uses these poverty thresholds to update its poverty guidelines each year. These guidelines are used as an eligibility criterion of a number of federal programs, including certain low-income programs. We also previously reported that the official poverty measure had not changed substantially since it was first developed, and concerns about its inadequacies had resulted in efforts to develop a new measure. For example, poverty threshold (the income level used to determine who is “in poverty” each year) is based on three times the cost of food and does not take into account the cost of other basic necessities, such as shelter and utilities. Additionally, the official poverty measure considers cash income in determining a household’s income, but does not include additions to income based on the value of noncash assistance (e.g., food assistance) or reductions based on other necessary living expenses (e.g., medical expenses or taxes paid). A National Academy of Sciences panel on poverty and an interagency technical working group suggested ways that a new poverty measure could address some of these concerns. Based on these suggestions, Census, with support from BLS, developed a new poverty measure—the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM)—in 2010. Unlike the official poverty measure, the SPM adds other forms of non- cash benefits, such as tax credits and SNAP benefits, and subtracts expenses, such as federal, state, and local income taxes, when calculating a household’s resources. We have previously reported that federally funded social safety net programs generally provide targeted assistance to specific groups within the low-income population, such as people with disabilities and workers with children. In 2015, we identified more than 80 federal programs (including 6 tax expenditures) that provided aid to individuals and families who may earn too little to meet their basic needs, cannot support themselves through work, or are disadvantaged in other ways. According to the Congressional Research Service, five of these programs— Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, EITC, and ACTC—accounted for $551.2 billion in spending in fiscal year 2015, or two-thirds of total federal spending on low-income assistance programs in that year. Eligibility criteria vary for these five federally funded programs and can include both financial and nonfinancial criteria. As we have previously reported, some programs are administered by states, which may apply their own eligibility criteria. Assistance may be provided to an individual, a family, or household. More recently, we reported that these programs’ eligibility criteria varied significantly in terms of the income limits used. In addition, we found that programs differed in the ways they measured applicants’ income, the standards and methods used to determine the income limit (i.e., the maximum income an applicant may have and still be eligible for the program), whether this limit is set nationwide or varies by state or locality, and the amount of the income limit itself. We also found that rules for determining the maximum allowable income that an applicant may have a recipient could earn and still be eligible, the amounts themselves, and whether they are set nationwide or vary by state or locality, also varied significantly. For example, in TANF, income limits are determined by states. We found that some states use HHS’s poverty guidelines, which are adjusted annually, while others had a limit set in state law, which is not adjusted. In addition to having income tests, we found that some programs limit assets that an eligible individual or family may hold, while others do not. Furthermore, we found that programs may have ongoing requirements that families must satisfy to remain enrolled and receiving assistance. For example, we found that some programs periodically require participants to recertify that their income remains below the income limit. About 40 percent of U.S. workers ages 25 to 64 earned hourly wages of $16 or less (in constant 2016 dollars) over the period 1995 through 2016, according to our analysis of CPS data (see fig. 4). In each of the 6 years we reviewed, an estimated 1 to 5 percent of these workers earned an hourly wage or less of that year’s federal minimum wage, about 17 percent earned above federal minimum wage to $12 per hour, and about 18 percent earned above $12 per hour to $16 per hour. The stagnation of low-wage workers in the workforce as depicted in our analysis of CPS data is also consistent with the literature on income inequality. Recent studies have found that while average wages experienced little or no change from 1973 through 2011 (when held in constant 2011 dollars), income inequality increased as a result of income growth among high-wage workers. Low-wage workers, on average, worked fewer hours per week from 1995 through 2016 than similar workers earning higher wages, according to our analysis of CPS data. In each of the years we reviewed, our estimates showed that workers who earned the federal minimum wage or less worked an average of about 30 hours per week, workers earning above the federal minimum wage to $12 per hour worked an average of about 33 hours per week, and those earning $12.01 to $16 per hour worked an average of about 37 hours per week (see fig. 5). One option that a worker has to increase earnings is working multiple jobs. Our analysis of CPS data found that few low-wage workers held multiple jobs and low-wage workers tended to work multiple jobs at the same rate as workers earning higher wages. Specifically, our estimates showed that about 5 percent of low-wage workers in each low-wage category worked multiple jobs, or about the same percent as workers earning more than $16 per hour in each of the years we reviewed. The combination of low wages and limited hours can affect a worker’s earnings and potential eligibility for federal social safety net programs. The reported growth of involuntary part-time workers—workers who would prefer to work more hours but are limited by economic conditions such as employers cutting hours or lack of full-time job opportunities—has likely reduced the average hours that low-wage workers can work. According to BLS, the number of these involuntary part-time workers peaked during the Great Recession and has yet to return to pre-recession levels. In 2016, BLS estimated that 5.6 million workers were involuntary part-time workers, of which about 61 percent said they were part-time because of business conditions and 34 percent said they could only find part-time employment. In previous reports, we found that low-wage workers employed on a contingent basis were more likely to earn low wages, less likely to have employer-sponsored benefits, and more likely to rely on social safety net programs. Low-wage workers who provide the sole income for a family may have income that is low enough to qualify them for federally funded social safety net programs. As shown in table 2, a hypothetical low-wage single parent who served as the sole income provider for a family of three would qualify for several programs of the five that we included in our analysis provided any other applicable eligibility requirements were also met. The same five industries consistently employed the majority of low-wage workers from 1995 through 2016—leisure and hospitality, education and health, professional and business services, wholesale and retail trade, and manufacturing. Specifically, in each of the years we reviewed, these five industries employed approximately 70 percent of low-wage workers. Comparatively, these five industries also employed about 62 percent of workers earning more than $16.