“Low incomes, volatile incomes and poverty risk all correlate with child poverty. For most children, the poorest their parents will ever be is on the day they are born. People have kids in their 20s and 30s, but workers’ earnings don’t peak until their 40s or later. The poverty rate for children under 4 is always higher than the poverty rate for children 5-17, simply because the poverty rate for adults aged 25-34 is always higher than the poverty rate for adults aged 35-44 or 45-54.

For children, the consequences of volatility and poverty, even for intermittent periods, can be acute and lasting. For example, children’s test scores are lower in the days just before food stamp benefits arrive (when the household is most likely to be short on food), and children whose parents were laid off during their childhood earned less as adults.”