Education and the working Poor

Monthly Labor Review, July, 2003

The incidence of living in poverty greatly diminishes as workers achieve higher levels of education. In 2001, only 1.5 percent of college graduates were counted among the working poor. This compared with 2.6 percent of workers with associate degrees, 4.4 percent of those with some college but no degree, 5.8 percent of high school graduates with no college, and 13.1 percent of high school dropouts.

At all educational attainment levels other than college graduate, women were more likely than men to be among the working poor. At all educational attainment levels, blacks were more likely to be among the working poor than were whites. For more information sec BLS Report 968, A Profile of the Working Poor, 2001.