Headline Roundup • September 12th, 2023
Poverty Rate Increased, Median Wages Decreased in 2022
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Average inflation-adjusted income fell and a key measure of poverty increased in 2022, according to new data from the United States Census Bureau released on Tuesday.
Details: While the official U.S. poverty rate remained unchanged from the previous year at 11.5%, or roughly 37.9 million Americans, the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) rate increased from 7.8% in 2021 to 12.4% in 2022. The SPM accounts for participation in government programs. The SPM child poverty rate in 2022 more than doubled the 2021 rate, increasing from 5.2% to 12.4%. The median household income dropped by 2.3% in 2022, decreasing from $76,330 to $74,580 amid a 7.8% inflation rate, the largest cost-of-living adjustment since 1981.
Key Quote: The report stated that social security “continued to be the most important antipoverty program in 2022, moving 28.9 million people out of SPM poverty. Meanwhile, refundable tax credits moved 6.4 million out of SPM poverty, down from 9.6 million people in 2021.”
How the Media Covered It: The new data was covered most frequently and prominently by left-rated outlets. Center- and left-rated outlets more frequently linked the poverty increase to inflation and the ending of pandemic-era federal assistance programs, while right-rated outlets typically focused exclusively on inflation. Fox Business (Lean Right bias) mistook the regular SPM rate for the SPM child poverty rate in one instance of its coverage.
Featured Coverage of this Story
REUTERS/Liliana Salgado/File photo
Inflation-adjusted income fell and a key poverty measure rose sharply last year as the U.S. economy continued its rocky emergence from a once-in-a-century pandemic, the U.S. Census Bureau reported on Tuesday.
The income and poverty data released by the Census showed how deeply the country's recent economic outcomes were influenced by the COVID-19 health crisis and the government response to it -- with a measure of child poverty more than doubling following the expiry of pandemic-era child tax credits last year, and the worst inflation in 40 years undercutting household...
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
A measure of poverty tracked by the Census Bureau rose in 2022, as COVID era benefits expired and average income fell, according to a Tuesday report.
Why it matters: Child poverty saw a sharp increase in 2022 following a record low the year prior.
Driving the news: While the official poverty rate (considered an outdated measure) didn't see a significant change from 2021 to 2022, the supplemental poverty measure (SPM), which takes government aid into account, saw a sharp increase.
The SPM was 12.4% in 2022, an increase of 4.6...
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images
American households' income fell last year as their cost of living jumped higher than it has in over four decades amid soaring inflation and marking the third straight annual decline since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The federal agency reported Tuesday that U.S. real median household income fell by 2.3% to $74,580 in 2022, down from $76,330 in 2021, noting that inflation rose 7.8%, which is the largest annual increase in the cost-of-living adjustment since 1981.
Despite the drop in income,...
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