Are You a Member of the Working Poor?

I've actually heard this term referred to in the past, but I didn't know the criteria into which were taken into consideration when determining whether or not someone was working poor. Our family is not the working poor, but we aren't well off either. My husband's job definitely puts us in the working class or the middle/lower middle class. We aren't wealthy and we don't have a savings account, yet, but we also aren't living beyond our means and we do own one house and two cars. We are going to get there some day where we can be comfortable, but until we get there it is an uphill battle.

I have more than three of the mentioned characteristics. I am grateful for what I have, but it is no longer enough money for the hours I am on call or am at work.

I fit into several of the categories but I do not think I am poor.

Yes, I have heard of the 'working poor'. When I was in the throws of sickness back in late 2005 and I began to feel I was not sure how I was going to continue to makes ends meat I tried to get help from the state in the ---- of food stamps and Taffy. I made too much money I was told. I couldn't feed my family, had very few bills except for the basics rent, gas for my car, utilities and a credit card that I couldn't hardly keep payed monthly and yet I made too much. No I have no plans to get rid of the 'working poor" title. I am now on SSDI and have to hopes of going back to work. As far as I am concerned I am retired yet I do afew things online that I term as my 'work'.

yes inmy college i am the member of NSS.it stands for national civil service.it is the organisation started by our college and it's main goal is to serve the poor peoples..this club always participated in any activity in which it has to help the poor people.

I'm look forward to my first work.

#5 is a perfect example of society blaming anyone but the person themselves for their misfortunes. It is their fault they are the working poor, their own lack of self control got them there! I can't call myself a member of the working poor because I have no job but I do have an income that covers my necessities. I can't go to movies or shop for things I like but my needs are met.

I don't really agree with your definition of 'working poor'. From experience I would take that to mean someone who lives paycheck to paycheck literally, never able to save anything or get ahead because their expenses just about equal their salary and they can't downgrade the expenses any more than they have yet they can't find a way to make any more money either. I might agree with the one about having little savings and no property, but only if they are not comfortably able to afford their lifestyle from month to month. There are people who generally have a surplus from month to month but don't necessarily invest it or save it - it's money they don't HAVE to spend because their expenses don't equal their salary but they aren't really adding it to their worth, it's just 'there' for want of a better term. The taking work home with you scenario, I don't consider that working poor either. I consider that a misuse of one's time - unless your job duties STIPULATE that you must use a certain number of hours of your 'off time' preparing lessons or putting together things - such as a teacher would do off the clock. Let it be said that if my job description or duties do not state that I MUST work off the clock or do anything work related in my spare time, I would NEVER work off the clock or do anything work related in my spare time. I'd make sure I got paid for every minute of it. For the most part, I would consider someone working poor if they worked minimum wage (and that's it) or perhaps it was two incomes of minimum wage and yet they had to pay for daycare for kids and commuting costs. That would be really tight in terms of money unless the rent was super cheap and jobs were extremely close and the daycare was like $15 a day. Also obviously for someone whose expenses equalled MORE than their salary and they were going in the hole.

We no longer work and are on pension which puts us in the same boat. Most of my kids and grandkids are working poor as described above. The only way that they can get out is to increase their education, even if it just basic training for what we call trade jobs. I have one granddaughter with not one but two college degrees, when she found there was no market in today's world for her skills, she took a online course to become a personal trainer and is now licensed to do that. Plus she worked at a retail sales job. Both the job and the license has given her the experience to start working in the health care field which is a strong employer right now. So you can help yourself if you think outside the box, but it is not easy.

I do not work for any poor. but i know that I am working for myself. I do not believe in working for anyone. the poor can work, but many are used to the donations and freebies doled out to them by the so called NGOs which actually is in the business of keeping these people poor forever so that they can get funds from governments and raise money from various others. i wonder what these NGOs do with these funds. this much i know. all those who join this NGOs are today pretty well settled and loves the easy money in the name of serving the poor.

Hi GB, I am a member of the working poor bwahahahahaha...extremely a working poor.

I guess i am, coz i am still up, Mylotting, its 2am here in our country, working with no propects, low salary, or no salary at months end.

I'm not a member of the working poor... But who, precisely, came up with that definition? It seems woefully inadequate to me. Being an old Marxist (when it suits me), I'd class most of us amongst the "working poor" (or: the proletariat) - simply as a function of relative distance from the means of production. I know that my boss wouldn't employ me if my labour was worth more than it could be exploted for, so the fact that I'm not exactly living on the poverty line is largely irrelevant.

My husband and I considered ourselves "working poor" when we were both working full time jobs with decent pay and were still not able to pay all our bills even though we didn't spend money on anything but bills. The only thing else I budgeted out of our checks (besides childcare which was the cheapest I could find @ $125 a week for two kids) was $20 for gas in the car and $35 for groceries for the week. In December we both got laid off and then instead of being "working poor" we were just poor. The thing we find ironic was that with only two months on unemployment, we had caught up on all our bills and were able to start saving a little at a time. I think it is ridiculous how even people who go to work everyday and do their 40 hours without complaint, manage their money well, still can't make ends meet.

That is the first time I heard of such a term. What I usually hear is the word Working Class which literally means those that earn their living by working from their employers. Working Poor is by your definition very different from that of working class. I would consider myself looking into that.

I am retired and therefore not working in the sense they mean it here. However, I have quite a different definition of the working poor. I have never heard of it applied to people who have good jobs but just never got a promotion. Nor should it apply to people who earn a lot and spend it all. We have other names for that! Those who work in the daytime but bring it home in the evening would be school teachers for sure, but not the working poor. These to me are people who are for the most part unskilled and/or uneducated and therefore reduced to having to take such low-paying jobs that they cannot afford to buy the bare necessities of life with their pay. Necessities would not include TV sets and fancy cars and junk food. Basic rent is a necessity. Paying the dentist, eyeglasses and shoes for the children, bus fare, that sort of thing. To me, working poor are people who cannot afford to live in a way that they feel safe, especially in the night. I have been poor and I have worked hard for little, but that was years ago when the streets were less violent and when one could adjust one's needs to one's resources, so such a term was meaningless then. I think it is a rather insulting term, and that the people who go around inventing such terms should be dealing with the problem head on instead of sanctifying it with a label.

Working Poor means wage slavery..not being compensated for your work properly..where your salary is determined not by the value of your work/efforts but by the greed of your employer, by the greed of your government (minimum wage freeze in US by Reagan)..where one can afford little, if anything, beyond the basics (when that)..It is not a reflection of my work ethic but a reflection of the lack of such by those that under compensate me.. The plan is always there to eliminate it. The question is whether it is do-able without becoming one of the wage enslavers..enjoy!

Good discussion here. I too heard of this for the first time. !!!