; February 1, 2019). J Protections Against Poverty 31001. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) According to the Census Bureau, more than 38,000,000 people, including 12,000,000 children, lived in poverty in 2018 based on the Official Poverty Measure. (2) More than 17,000,000 people lived in deep poverty, defined as living in a household with a total cash income below 50 percent of its poverty threshold. (3) Poverty disproportionately impacts communities of color, with the poverty rate at 20.8 percent for Blacks, 17.6 percent for Hispanics, and 10.1 percent for Asians, versus 8.1 percent for non-Hispanic Whites. (4) The Official Poverty Measure often understates the number of people who have trouble making ends meet. (5) According to a 2020 Federal Reserve report on the economic well-being of United States households, an estimated 37 percent of people cannot cover an unexpected $400 expense. (6) The top one percent of United States households have experienced income growth before taxes and transfer payments nearly seven times faster than the bottom 20 percent of households since 1979. (7) Wealth has become even more concentrated than income. (8) According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the top 10 percent of United States households ranked by wealth own 77 percent of the country’s total wealth while those in the bottom 50 percent own one percent. (9) A full-time, full-year minimum wage worker at the Federal minimum wage level of $7.25 lives below the poverty line. (10) A vast majority of low wage earners lack access to paid family leave, leaving them just one accident or illness away from economic devastation. (11) Unions increase workers’ wages, ensure access to better benefits, address wage inequality, and reduce poverty. (12) 5,140,000 Americans aged 65 and older lived in poverty in 2018. (13) According to the United States Census Bureau, 27,500,000 people did not have health insurance at any point in 2018. (14) According to the Federal Reserve, 25 percent of adults reported skipping medical