Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 29

INTRODUCTION
1 percent. It wasn’t always this way, as we see in Figure i.6. From the end of World War
II until about the middle of the 1970s, hourly compensation (wages and benefits) rose at
the same rate as productivity growth. Income inequality—a subject we’ve been hearing so
much about in recent years, and we will say more about later in the report—is basically a
story about the divergence of wages from productivity growth.

A Stronger Safety Net
Safety net programs help protect people from the hardships associated with poverty,
such as hunger, homelessness,
and debilitating medical probFigure i.7 Poverty Rate Would Have Been Nearly Twice as High
lems. Programs are means-tested,

in 2011 Without Safety Net
so participants are required to
have little or no income, and
Counting no government assistance (before taxes)
are sometimes required to drain
nearly all of their savings, before
Counting only Social Security
they can qualify. These are often
Counting Social Security and all other government assistance (after taxes)
people who cannot work or are
limited in how much they can
work because of old age, poor
All Ages
health, or a disability. Children
29.0%
and adults in families where the
21.6%
breadwinner is unemployed or
16.1%
doesn’t earn enough to meet
basic living expenses qualify for
safety net programs. Full-time
Ages 18-64
students in postsecondary educa23.2%
tion programs may rely on safety
19.7%
net programs to see them and
15.6%
their children through extended
periods when they can’t earn sufUnder 18
ficient income.
29.9%
In 2011, the combined federal
28.3%
safety net programs lifted a total
of 40 million people above the
18.2%
poverty line, including almost 9
million children.26 Social Security
Source: Arloc Sherman, Danilo Trisi, and Sharon Parrott (July 30, 2013), “Various Supports
for Low-Income Families Reduce Poverty and Have Long-Term Positive Effects on Families and
did most of the work, pulling 21.4
Children,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. CBPP analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.
million people out of poverty—
seniors, people with disabilities,
and/or families caring for a member with a disability.27 Social Security is not purely a
safety net program, because retirees and disabled people who receive it paid into the program through payroll taxes during their working years. But it has the effect of a safety
net—and the single largest one by far. Social Security expenditures for fiscal year 2012 were
$773 billion.28
www.bread.org/institute?

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