Poverty responds to policy.

Poverty is not a personal failure. It is the predictable result of an economic baseline that is too low.

New research from the Public Policy Institute of California shows that California’s poverty rate fell when pandemic-era assistance expanded—and rose sharply when that support ended. By 2024, 6.7 million Californians were living below the poverty line (based on the California Poverty Measure that asserts that the poverty level for 2 adults and 2 children in our state ranges between $39,000-53,000). Without safety-net programs, another 2.5 million people would have joined them.

This research confirms that poverty is NOT just about unemployment or individual circumstances. Instead, it is heavily influenced and shaped by the cost of living, wages, and public policies that determine whether individuals and families have enough resources to meet basic needs.

The lesson is clear: public policy choices shape whether people can meet their basic needs and, as the fourth largest economy in the world, the workers powering that prosperity need to benefit from it as well.

Three findings stand out:

We need measures grounded in real life. California’s high costs for housing, food, utilities, and other essentials mean traditional poverty measures do not tell the whole story. Our policies should reflect what it actually takes to live in this state—not normalize hardship that official thresholds fail to capture.

Economic security makes people and communities more resilient. Pandemic assistance showed what happens when we raise the baseline: poverty becomes more manageable, families are better able to stay housed and fed, and people are more prepared to weather the financial shocks that eventually touch nearly everyone.

A job alone is not enough. Too many Californians work full-time—sometimes at multiple jobs—and still live in or near poverty. Work should provide economic security. That requires adequate wages, refundable tax credits, effective income support, and access to essential services.

We do not need to accept a status quo that fails working people. This analysis from PPIC  shows that poverty responds to public policy choices. We can pursue different policies that enable all working people to thrive and guarantee economic dignity for all.

Poverty responds to policy. We can choose differently.