The salary that puts you in poverty is an annual salary of $15,960.00 for a single person and an annual salary of $33,00.00 for a family of 4 people.
If your household's total pre-tax income falls below the federal poverty guidelines, the federal government will classify you as living in poverty.
Although the actual official thresholds for poverty are also administrative and don't account for geographic cost of living differences.
And many community analysts and economists suggest that the real threshold to be able to afford basic survival is much higher.
Also the Department of Health and Human Services sets the income limits for poverty, which is also used to determine your eligibility for programs such as SNAP and Medicaid.
For 1 person the income limit is $15,960.00 a year.
For 2 people the income limit is $21,640.00 a year.
For 3 people the income limit is $27,320.00 a year.
And for 4 people the income limit is $33,000.00 a year.
These are also baseline federal guidelines and so they are the same in all the states, although many states with high costs of living adjust these income brackets to categorize incomes up to $70,000.00 and sometimes more for a single person as low income if the cost of living is very high.
To qualify for most government assistants like SNAP, a household often needs an income below a certain percentage of the poverty guideline, which is usually around 130%.
For a family of 4, 130% is $42,900.00
For an individual, 130% is $20,748.00