4.3.2 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 (e.g., 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 (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 (4.5.5) 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 annualized and budgeted as $833.33 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 (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 his or her 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 food unit member, for example, IRISInclude, Respect, I Self-Direct 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 4.3.2.2 Disregarded Earned Income.
Earnings from WIOAWorkforce Innovation and Opportunity Act On The Job Training when the earner is either:
1. At least 19 years old, or
2. Less than 19 years old but not under the parental control of a member of the same food unit.

Note: See # 9 in 4.3.2.2 Disregarded Earned Income 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.

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 aid for the full year and does not supplement his income during the summer. Average his income over 12 months = $1,123.40 per month.

Example 5: Nancy works for the public school as a nurse part-time. 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.

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

Migrant Farm Worker Income

To determine migrant farm income:

1. Request a copy of any existing work agreement,
2. Contact the employer when necessary to find the hours of work and wage rate, and/or
3. Ask the migrant how many hours he or she and members of his or her 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 subsided employment income including Transitional Jobs, Transform Milwaukee Jobs, Trial Employment Match Program (TEMP).
All Subsidized Private Sector Employment (SPSE) income.
All Transitional Jobs Demonstration Project (TJDP) income.

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 his or her volunteer activities.
Income from Title I of the Domestic Volunteers Service Act of 1973 only when the volunteer received FoodShare at the time he or she 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* VISTA
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
4. American Association of Retired Persons
5. U.S. Forest Service
6. National Council on Black Aging
7. National Urban League
8. 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. 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.

Note: See # 11 in 4.3.2.1 Counted Earned Income for WIOA OJT.

On The Job Training payments from the JTPA Summer Youth Employment and Training Program.
Allowances, earnings, and payments to participants in the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993 (NCTSA). This act includes the Americorps Network of Programs, which are the network of programs developed to engage Americans in a year or two of national service in exchange for an education award equivalent to the maximum value of the Pell Grant for the award year, per year of completed service. For federal fiscal year 2016 the award amount is $5,775.

Disregard income from the following AmeriCorps programs:

AmeriCorps* State and National - for participants 17 years of age and older, and
AmeriCorps* National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) - for participants 18 to 24 years of age.

See number 6a in 4.3.2.2 Disregarded Earned Income, to contrast with AmeriCorps*VISTA which is different.

There is no longer an On the Job Training (OJT) component of AmeriCorps. All AmeriCorps income is exempt for FoodShare benefits.

Work study by a student enrolled in an institution of higher learning.
Repayments (4.5.6.7 Earned Income Repayments).
2010 Census temporary employment income. The income of permanent census workers is counted as earned income.
Funds from a crowdfunding accounts (such as GoFundMe, Kickstarter, and Indiegogo) when a member or applicant does not have access to the funds.

This page last updated in Release Number: 16-02

Release Date: 12/19/2016

Effective Date: 12/19/2016