The poverty line for one person is $10.9k. For a family of four, $22.4k. That covers circa 15% of the population. For comparison, the median income is $44k, so if you're making $30-40k per year (assuming two salaries) then that's not far from the average American household.
http://www.data360.org/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=2363 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States
The poverty line for one person is $10.9k. For a family of four, $22.4k. That covers circa 15% of the population. For comparison, the median income is $44k, so if you're making $30-40k per year (assuming two salaries) then that's not far from the average American household.