Working poor

The working poor are employed people who live in households that fall below an accepted poverty line. While poverty in the developed world is often associated with unemployment, the extreme poverty that exists throughout much of the developing world is largely a problem of employed persons. For these poor workers, the problem is typically one of employment quality. Reducing poverty in line with the SDGs therefore necessitates boosting the employment opportunities and incomes of the working poor – those people who are employed, but who are nevertheless unable to lift themselves and their families above the poverty threshold. This map shows for each country the proportion of employed people who live on less than $3.10 a day (in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) terms), expressed as a percentage of the total employed population aged 15 and older.