4.3.2 Earned Income

4.3.2.1 Counted Earned Income
4.3.2.2 Disregarded Earned Income

Earned income is gained from the performance of service, labor, or work. Earned income includes, but is not limited to salaries, wages, commission, tips, or payments for services. Count earned income only for the month in which it is received, except when the average number of payments increases due to mailing cycle adjustments.

Note

Occasionally, a regular periodic payment (for example, wages, Title II, or VAVeterans Affairs benefits) is received in a month other than the month of normal receipt. As long as there is no intent to interrupt the regular payment schedule, consider the funds to be income in the normal month of receipt.

Example 1

Bill works in February but does not receive his pay for those hours until March. Count those wages for March.

Food units receiving income on a recurring monthly or semi-monthly basis shall not have their monthly income varied merely because of changes in mailing cycles or because weekends or holidays cause additional payments to be received in a month.

Example 2

Jim receives his military pay on the 1st and 15th of each month. If Jim’s payday for the following month is a holiday or falls on a weekend, he is paid on the last preceding business day. This may result in Jim receiving three paychecks in one month. In this situation, only two paychecks per month should be budgeted for Jim.

4.3.2.1 Counted Earned Income

Count the following sources of income as earnings in the month received:

Wages, tips, or salaries including, but not limited to, hourly wages and piecework.
Self-employment earnings (see Section 4.3.3 Farming and Other Self-Employment Income).
Recurring profit-sharing payments or bonuses. Bonus income from employment should be counted as earned income if receipt is regular and predictable. Budget the bonus based on the frequency of receipt. A bonus would be considered a lump sum payment (see Section 4.5.5 Recurring and Nonrecurring Lump Sum Payments) if the income is received infrequently or irregularly to be reasonably anticipated.

Example 3

Joan received a $10,000 bonus in September. Her SWICA wage match history shows that she has received this bonus annually. The bonus would be budgeted as earned income received monthly ($10,000/12 = $833.33).

Wages withheld at the request of the employee should be counted as income in the month it would normally have been received.
Advances on wages.
Any money received for accrued sick days and severance pay from an employer.
Any money received as payment for baby-sitting or childA person's biological, step, or adopted son or daughter, regardless of age. If a child is adopted, the adoption severs the biological tie to the parent. care as self-employment income if the care is provided in the food unit's home. If a self-employed child care provider also provides meals, they may be entitled to income deductions (see Section 8.1.3 Deductions). If the care is not provided in the food unit's home, count the payments as regular earned income.
Any child care payment paid by an outside source to a food unit member is treated as earned income. In situations when a food unit member pays another food unit member from their own pocket, such child care payments are not counted as earned income because the money is moving between food unit members.
Attendant care payments provided by an outside source are treated as earned income for the attendant if the care is for a disabled individual.
IRIS payments.
Money received from the sale of a person's blood or plasma.
Any training allowance from a vocational or rehabilitative program recognized by a governmental agency that is not an expense reimbursement, unless the source is listed as an exception in Section 4.3.2.2 Disregarded Earned Income.
Earnings from WIOAWorkforce Innovation and Opportunity Act On The Job Training when the earner is either: At least 19 years old, or, Less than 19 years old but not under the parental controlAn adult providing parental control acts as a parent would toward the minor child. A minor child is considered under parental control if the child is financially or otherwise dependent on a member of the household. Foster care providers do not meet the parental control definition. of a member of the same food unit.

Note See Section 4.3.2.2 Disregarded Earned Income, #9 for WIOAWorkforce Innovation and Opportunity Act work experience.
Military pay cycles affect how income is counted. Count any income received on the last day of a month by an active member of the military as income in the following month. Some military personnel are eligible for a supplemental Family Subsistence Supplemental Allowance (FSSA) payment if they meet the FoodShare gross income limits. The FSSA is considered gross earned income and is to be budgeted like other military income. However, it appears on a different line on the military paycheck.
Contractual pay that is the food unit's annual income (intended to provide support for the entire year) and is not paid on an hourly or piece work basis, should be prorated over 12 months. Contractual income that is not the food unit's annual income (intended to provide support for the food unit for only a portion of the year) and is not paid on an hourly or piece work basis, should be prorated over the period the income is intended to cover.

Note Income from piecework or hourly work is not contractual income. Do not treat it as such.

Example 4

Joe works for public school as a teacher’s aide. Joe has worked there for the last three years and receives a 9 ½ month contract every August. He earns $13,480.50 annually. He lives off his salary as a teacher's aide for the full year and does not supplement his income during the summer. Average his income over 12 months ($13,480.50/12 = $1,123.37/month).

Example 5

Nancy works part-time as a nurse for the public school. She receives a contract for 9 ½ months every August. In the summer, she supplements her income with a job at the Girl Scouts campgrounds in the first aid tent. Average Nancy’s school income over 9 ½ months because her contract income is not her annual income.

Migrantany person who temporarily leaves a principal place of residence outside of his state and comes to this state for not more than 10 months in a year to accept seasonal employment in the planting, cultivating, raising, harvesting, handling, drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing, grading, or storing of any agricultural or horticultural commodity in its unmanufactured state Farm Worker Income. To determine migrant farm income: request a copy of any existing work agreement, contact the employer when necessary to find the hours of work and wage rate, and/or ask the migrant how many hours they and members of their family expect to work and the wage rate they expect to be paid. Most migrants work in fairly stable work environments such as canning factories or under some type of contract. In these cases, determine the employer's usual pay levels and pay periods, and project the hours and the rate of pay expected. Do not assume without supporting documentation or collateral contacts that a migrant farm worker works 40 hours a week. If the earnings received by the migrant worker are from employment other than agricultural income, it will be budgeted in the normal procedure on the CWW Employment screens. Normal procedures are also used for all unearned income and assets.
All W-2Wisconsin Works Wisconsin Works subsidized employment income including Transitional Jobs, Transform Milwaukee Jobs, and the Trial Employment Match Program (TEMP).
All Subsidized Private Sector Employment (SPSE) income.
All Transitional Jobs Demonstration Project (TJDP) income.
Temporary and permanent census employment income.
1. Per federal waiver approval, census income is to be disregarded for 2020 and February 1, 2021 through October 31, 2021. Work hours must be counted for student and ABAWD eligibility.

4.3.2.2 Disregarded Earned Income

Disregardmeans do not count, exempt, or exclude means "do not count.” When you are calculating the total amount of income a person has received, you should exempt or exclude any of the following kinds of income:

Wages withheld as a general practice by an employer (even if in violation of law) until actually received by the employee.
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITCEarned Income Tax Credit) payments.
Earned income of any person 17 years or younger, who is a food unit member under parental control of an adultA person who is 18 years old or older food unit member and is enrolled in an elementary, high school, technical school, or university. This includes GED classes and home schools recognized or supervised by the state or local board of education. Disregard the income until the month following the month in which the person turns 18 years of age. These provisions apply to semester and vacation breaks provided the student plans to return to school following the break.
Reimbursements or flat allowances for job or training-related expenses. Expenses may be for travel, daily allowance, dependent care, uniforms, and transportation to and from a job or training site, including travel expenses of migrant workers.
Reimbursements for a volunteer's out-of-pocket expenses incurred in the course of their volunteer activities.
Income from Title I of the Domestic Volunteers Service Act of 1973 only when the volunteer received FoodShare at the time they joined the Title I program. Interruptions in FoodShare participation do not alter this disregard. Some individuals were receiving the disregard for a Title I program at the time of conversion to the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008. Continue the disregard for the same time frame for which they said they would volunteer at the time of conversion. If these exceptions do not apply, count Title I income as earned income. Title I programs include:
1. AmeriCorps* VISTAVolunteers In Service To America
2. University Year for Action
3. Urban Crime Prevention Program
All Title II Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973 program income. These programs include:
1. Retired Seniors Volunteer Program (RSVP)
2. Foster Grandparents Program
3. Senior Companion Programs
Income from the Title V Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) of the Older Americans Act. Organizations that receive Title V include, but are not limited to, the:
1. Experience Works Program
2. National Council on Aging
3. National Council of Senior Citizens American Association of Retired Persons
4. U.S. Forest Service
5. National Council on Black Aging
6. National Urban League
7. National Association for Spanish Speaking Elderly
WIOAWorkforce Innovation and Opportunity Act work experience: Any allowances, earnings (except On The Job Training), or payments to food unit members participating in WIOA programs, including Jobs Corps and YouthBuild (see Section 4.3.2.1 Counted Earned Income, #11 for WIOA OJT. Only count earnings from WIOA On The Job Training when the earner is either:
1. At least 19 years old, or
2. Less than 19 years but not under the parental control of a member of the same food unit.
On The Job Training payments from the JTPA Summer Youth Employment and Training Program.
Allowances, earnings, educational awards, and payments to participants in the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993 (NCTSA). Income from participation in Americorps programs.
Work study by a student enrolled in an institution of higher learning.
Repayments (see Section 4.5.6.7 Earned Income Repayments).
Funds from a crowdfunding account (such as, GoFundMe, Kickstarter, and Indiegogo) when a member or applicant does not have access to the funds.
In-kind income: a non-monetary benefit granted on behalf of the food unit for things such as meals, housing, clothing, or other goods in exchange for services.

Example 6

Tom works at J’s BBQ 20 hours a week in exchange for free rent. Tom’s work hours count toward his ABAWD work participation requirement. Tom receives no money for the hours he works. Since he receives free rent in exchange for his work, no shelter expense is allowed.

This page last updated in Release Number: 21-03
Release Date: 03/29/2021
Effective Date: 02/01/2021