There are 15 million more people living in poverty than in 2000. Additionally, America has become a low-wage nation. The average salaried job in the country now pays about $35,000 a year for a full-time job. That's a little more than he paid in 1973. On a $35,000 salary, people in America live in poverty because that amount of salary isn't even enough to live in a one-bedroom house. Maybe it's enough for one person, but for a person who has a family it's definitely not enough. In most cases in America, many families do not have both parents. Single mothers were and are in difficulty, with a poverty rate above 40%. That said, single mothers are the ones who are affected and are one of the cases living in poverty. They live in poverty because they are the only ones bringing money into the families and with their $35,000 salary it is not enough to provide for themselves and their children. Family structure plays an important role in poverty. “Poverty among single mothers with children at home, of all races, is the highest among demographic groups, higher than any minority or age group.” says Edelman, Peter. (2014). During the Great Recession, when many single mothers lived on food stamps, they soon destroyed their legal rights to food stamp benefits.