12k A year is 20 hrs a week at minimum wage, you cant really live off that but you can subsist. Technically that puts you under federal poverty guidelines so you should qualify for food stamps, subsidized housing and utilities. Under section 8 housing costs should not be more than 30% (the program covers the rest) so I dont understand the methodology here. Are they not accounting for subsidies and reduced rates? Is it 110% because of the subsidies? I would expect to see a huge spike between the Second lowest and lowest because those those people fall into a doughnut hole of services where they dont qualify for any assistance but still aren't making much more than the bottom 20. This data is just weird I dont really know what it is trying to say.