In the US, the official poverty threshold is $26,500 in annual income for a family of four.

For a one person household, it's just under $13,000.

In 2019, the official poverty rate in the US was 10.5% down from 11.8% just a year earlier.

In fact, this was the fifth annual drop in a row, and the 2019 figure was the lowest

on record since 1959 when the poverty rate was first measured.

But once the 2020 numbers come in, those gains are due to be reversed.

A pandemic will do that.

A series of government interventions have blunted the hit for many people.

Still, it's estimated that some 8 million Americans have slipped below the poverty line

during the pandemic.

As you likely know, higher income workers were generally hit less hard by the pandemic,

as a lot of their jobs could be done remotely.

For lower income workers, there was a double whammy, more lost jobs, and a higher likelihood

of getting COVID-19.

So with this pandemic-induced poverty spike, and with Democrats now running the federal

government, there's been a surge of interest in one of the most popular policies to fight

poverty, a higher minimum wage.

Here in Congress, there is a big movement to raise the minimum wage, and it will pass

the House of Representatives, because that's a majority in body.

The question is, can it pass in the Senate?

That's Cory Booker.

I am one of the two senators from the state of New Jersey.

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