Amount Worked (hours) Total Earnings Government Support Total Income

0

500

0

$18,000

$18,000

$4,000

$14,000

$18,000

1,000

$8,000

$10,000

$18,000

1,500

$12,000

$6,000

$18,000

2,000

$16,000

$2,000

$18,000

2,500

$20,000

0

$20,000

TABLE 15.3 Total Income at Various Combinations of Work and Support

The new budget line, with the antipoverty program in place, is the horizontal and heavy line that is flat at

$18,000. If the mother does not work at all, she receives $18,000, all from the government. If she works full
time, giving up 40 hours per week with her children, she still ends up with $18,000 at the end of the year. Only

if she works 2,300 hours in the year—which is an average of 44 hours per week for 50 weeks a year—does

household income rise to $18,400. Even in this case, all of her year’s work means that household income rises

by only $400 over the income she would receive if she did not work at all. She would need to work 50 hours a
{"batch_upload": true, "file_size_mb": 26.99, "file_name": "Microeconomics3e.pdf", "moddate": "2022-12-07T14:23:05-06:00", "source_file": "downloads\\business\\economics\\Microeconomics3e.pdf", "file_hash": "830b81f41611ac67a490444dbb5d6aed292224606965b06965b914443c93331a", "producer": "Prince 14.2 (www.princexml.com)", "file_type": ".pdf", "creationdate": "2022-12-07T14:15:44-06:00", "uploaded_via": "batch_uploader", "title": "Principles of Microeconomics 3e", "source": "downloads\\business\\economics\\Microeconomics3e.pdf", "creator": "PDFMiner", "upload_timestamp": "2026-02-07T15:24:38.309401", "total_pages": 597}