Developed in partnership with the University of Washington’s Center for Women’s Welfare, the 2022 Self-Sufficiency Standard for Arizona provides a detailed county-by-county breakdown of the income families of 70 different configurations need to make ends meet in all 15 Arizona counties. It also documents how public support, such as childcare assistance, enables families to meet their basic needs while moving towards self-sufficiency.   

The Self-Sufficiency Standard indicates the income working families need to meet their basic necessities without public or private assistance. Basic minimum needs include:    

• Housing   

• Child care   

• Food   

• Transportation   

• Health care   

• Miscellaneous expenses (clothing, telephone, household items)   

• Taxes (minus federal and state tax credits)    

• Emergency savings based on realistic living expenses for families 
    

Created by Dr. Diana Pearce in the mid-1990s, the Self-Sufficiency Standard is more accurate than the official poverty measure (OPM), which is more than fifty years old and does not account for all the above expenses.  
 

Many workers in Arizona have earnings that fall far short of what’s needed to meet basic family needs, even if their income is well above the official federal poverty guidelines. This is due to shortcomings in the national guidelines and policies which adjust for family size but not for other critical factors, including where a family lives or the age of their children.