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Celebrating Dr. Pearce's Leadership
Thanks to the generous support of Standard founder, Dr. Pearce, the Standard will be calculating all 50 states in 2026. Interested in hosting or accessing the data?

A project of the Center for Women’s Welfare (CWW), the Self-Sufficiency Standard is a budget-based, living wage measure that defines the real cost of living for working families at a minimally adequate level. The Standard is an affordability measure and an alternative to the official poverty measure.

The Self-Sufficiency Standard determines the amount of income required for working families to meet basic needs at a minimally adequate level, taking into account family composition, ages of children, and geographic differences in costs.

Self-Sufficiency Standard by State

Click on a state or view the state list.