Currently the federal poverty line is around the federal minimum wage. This is far too low for the economical times we are in. To say that anything north of roughly $7.00 per hour would be a livable wage is ludicrous. That means that the federal government believes that a single person making $10.00 an hour is capable of adequately caring for themselves.
This is a problem for several reasons, one of them being that in order to qualify for certain student loan consolidations or deferments that are income based, you must not make more than 150% of the poverty line. That is roughly $9.00 an hour for a single person. So in essence, that means the government believes that if you make $9.50 an hour, you are capable of paying all of your bills plus full loan payments. This must change!