Here (.pdf) are better data (USCB) on people living in poverty in 2014.
26.5MM age 18-64 lived in poverty.
16.4MM (62%) of them did not work.
7.1MM (27%) worked, but not full-time, year-round
3.1MM (12%) worked full-time, year-round
Why they didn’t work, or only part-time, is really neither here nor there. But USCB has those data if anyone is curious.
But what we see here is that most people living in poverty either do not work or work only a little. But they’re poor, and many people think we should do something about that. That requires spending someone’s money on it. Now one proposal is to raise minimum wage, altering how money flows from business owners, regardless of income, and from their customers, regardless of income, to MW earners, regardless of income; recall that most MW earners are not living in poverty. If you’re going to use someone’s money to try to solve the problem, I would much prefer to use taxes from people who can afford them (I can afford them) and direct the funds toward the people who need them. How that manifests is a matter for discussion.