Over 44% of Americans work low-wage jobs, which can trap people in a precarious cycle marked by limited job security, stagnant wages, unreliable hours, and few opportunities for promotion. Those who are working multiple low-wage jobs struggle to cover their basic living expenses. Celine-Marie Pascale, a professor of sociology at American University, illustrates this complex problem in her November 2021 essay. She contends that the federal poverty line is “an outdated measure of poverty,” and argues that policymakers should use other measures to design safety-net programs based on the real cost of living, which varies across the country.
