What Keeps the Working Poor Poor?

Despite sustained employment, millions remain entrapped in poverty, a paradox that challenges traditional assumptions about the relationship between work and economic mobility. This paper investigates the persistence of working poverty in the United States through a systems literature review guided by the DSRP (Distinctions, Systems, Relationships, Perspectives) framework. Drawing on a sample of 130 scholarly articles out of 750 academic publications across 60 disciplines and 86 methodologies, the study identifies key patterns, conceptual blind spots, and systemic linkages often overlooked in policy discourse. The findings reveal definitional ambiguity around “working poor”, fragmented analyses that isolate micro and macro dynamics, and missing causal relationships, such as wage gap, geographic job access, and care benefits, that reinforce economic vulnerability. The literature’s overreliance on narrow definitions, spiked policy approaches, and dominant cultural narratives obscures the complex feedback loops and institutional blockades that perpetuate economic precarity. Underexplored factors, including the role of the built environment, health, legal exclusion, and intersectional identities, further limit the effectiveness of current policy responses. By synthesizing these gaps and highlighting the need for integrated, cross-sectoral solutions, this paper argues that only a holistic, systems-oriented approach can address the root causes that keep the working poor trapped in poverty. This study’s relevance lies in its potential to inform more precise research, equitable policy design, and a shift in public discourse toward structural rather than individual explanations for working poverty.