Measuring Economic Needs Beyond Poverty: A Consumer Guide to Family Budget Measures

This consumer guide outlines the different methodological approaches of four family budget measures that seek to measure economic need more comprehensively. The guide describes the key similarities and differences across these measures in terms of their goals and purposes, coverage of various family compositions and geographies, family budget components, and the data and methods used to calculate each component. Our goal has been to provide a concise comparison of these data and methodological choices in order to help researchers and other users determine which measure works best for their particular goals and needs.

The four measures covered by this guide:

1. Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed (ALICE) Household Survival Budget
2. Economic Policy Institute’s (EPI) Family Budget Calculator
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Living Wage Calculator
4. University of Washington’s (UW) Self-Sufficiency Standard

Produced by the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University and the Institute for Equity in Child Opportunity and Healthy Development at Boston University

Suggested Citation:

Joshi, Pamela, Ryan Vinh, Christopher Wimer, and Elizabeth Wong. 2025. Measuring economic needs beyond poverty: A consumer guide to family budget measures. New York and Boston: Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy and the Boston University Institute for Equity in Child Opportunity and Healthy Development.

Published on March 14, 2025