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Family Poverty: The Median Family Wage

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Family Poverty: The Median Family Wage
A family is in relative poverty if its wage is below 60% of the median family wage. The median is the number 'in the middle of a set, so half of all families earn more than the median compensation and half win less. Clearly, a family with one individual in it needs less money to live effectively than a family containing a couple and two children. The government originally intended to halve child poverty by 2010 through the mechanism of paying child tax credit to all low income families with children, but this has not had the desired effect and fewer households than anticipated have been lifted out of poverty.

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