WORKING POOR

An employed person living below the poverty line.

"The key to reducing the number of working poor is creating decent and productive employment opportunities and promoting a fairer globalization as strategies for poverty reduction. It is not only the absence of work that is the source of poverty, but the less productive nature of that work. Productivity growth, after all, is the engine of the economic growth that enables working men and women to earn enough to lift themselves out of poverty."
(International Labour Organization (ILO), Press Releases, 2004, visited 2011-09-05)

The working poor have been defined as working at least six months a year, but whose standard of living is below the poverty line. They are poor despite working most of the year. The working poor should not be confused with low-wage earners, who may live above the level of poverty. For example, a teenager supported by his parents, an employee whose income is added to social assistance revenues or sources of income. Conversely, a high-wage earner whose income supports a large number of dependents may live under the poverty level.
(Adapted from Lagarenne, C. and N. Legendre, The Working Poor in France: Personal and Family Factors, National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), visited 2010-01-26)

Working poor are generally women, foreign nationals, single parents, low-skilled workers or self-employed workers without employees.