351 B arbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed (Collins, 2002; Curran, 2002) and David Shipler’s The Working Poor (Hacker, 2004; Lenkowsky, 2004) popularize many of the struggles working poor individuals face to make ends meet. Ehrenreich’s and Shipler’s portraits of working poor individuals imply that the term working poor should be an oxymoron—no one who works hard should be poor in the U.S. (Schwartz, 2004). Playing by the rules in the U.S. invariably implies that those who work should not have to suffer indignities associated with poverty status (Trumka, 2004), yet there are no assurances that the economy can generate the requisite number of jobs at sufficiently high wages to lift those who do work above the poverty thresh- olds, especially over sustained periods of time. Short-term, intermittent poverty, even if accompanied by work, is much less problematic economically and psychologically than sustained poverty accompanied by work, which does not seem just (Newman, 2004; Zawicki, 2005). In 1996, when Congress ended the federal entitlement provision of means-tested cash assistance to able-bodied persons (Pub. L. No. 104-193), it may have unwittingly pre- pared the way for the realization that some able-bodied people may require sustained public assistance (Danziger, Corcoran, Danziger, & Heflin, 2000; Dickerson, 1999). Early localized studies of the impact of the legislation between 1998 and 2001—which were relatively good economic times with a tight labor market—indicated that welfare rolls declined significantly, with many TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) recipients more likely to be employed and better off financially, but most nonetheless remained poor [italics added] (Seith, Rich, & Richburg- Hayes, 2007). Further, as Seith et al. note, localized outcome studies during the recession years of 2001 and 2002 also indicated that only about half of those leaving TANF expe- rience an increase in income, and these persons still needed a combination of food stamps, earned income tax credits, and other public benefits such as health care insurance for children to lift their families to poverty thresholds. To begin to get a handle on the potential need for pub- lic assistance for able-bodied persons, this paper assesses the incidence and prevalence of working and remaining poor in the United States among a nationally representa- tive sample of youth over a 25-year period. An earlier lon- gitudinal study of persons ages 20 to 85 indicated that by Working and Poor: A Panel Study of Maturing Adults in the U.S. Richard K. Caputo ABSTRACT This study uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and highlights the extent of poverty and working poverty between 1986 and 2004 (N = 5,164). Over one third (34.2%) of the study sample lived in a poor family at least one year, and nearly one fourth (24.2%) lived in a working poor family at least one year. In addition, almost three fourths (70.1%) of those who lived in a poor family at least one year also lived at least one year in a working poor family. Differences were found by gender and race/ethnicity. Findings suggest that poverty as a social problem is better formulated in terms of working rather than nonworking poverty and that gender and race/ethnicity disparities are prevalent. Policy options, such as expansion of the earned income tax credit and implementation of a basic income guarantee, are explored. CONSTRUCTS OF POVERTY AND DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE WORKING POOR This article is part of the "Working But Poor: Next Steps for Social Work Strategies and Collaborations" special issue of Families in Society with guest editor Sondra J. Fogel. www.familiesinsociety.org Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services | www.familiesinsociety.org | DOI: 10.1606/1044-3894.3644 ©2007 Alliance for Children and Families