How public policy addressing low income can be guided by the Minimum Income Standard

What is it about?

The Minimum Income Standard shows how much income people need to reach a minimum acceptable standard of living. It has been around for nearly ten years now, and has proven effective as a benchmark of what people require to meet material needs and participate in society, according to members of the public. This article shows how the research works, and in particular how it develops public consensus about what a minimum entails. It shows how it has produced stable results, and how it can be interpreted by policy makers and practitioners

Featured Image

Why is it important?

There's a general acceptance that efforts to combat poverty and low income should go beyond meeting the most basic material needs, and seek to allow everyone to participate in society. But measures of the income needed for this have proven elusive: indicators such as relative low income are useful, but abstract in nature. The Minimum Income Standard is increasingly being used, as a more tangible measure related to public perceptions. In using it in conjunction with other indicators, it's important to understand how the research works, and what it does and doesn't show.

Perspectives