Around 29% of low-income American households are currently living paycheck to paycheck, according to a new study by the Bank of America Institute, up from 23.5% in 2024. Spending on necessities such as groceries, utilities, housing, autos, and credit cards now exceeds over 95% of household income for over a quarter of Americans.
The poor are getting poorer; low-income households are naturally more inclined to report a rise in financial hardship, while high and middle-income earners have not seen a notable increase in paycheck-to-paycheck financial situations.
Inflation remains beneath the 2022 high of 9.1% but has not met the Fed’s 2% target. Again, I do not have faith in the figures provided by government agencies. Prices simply have not notably declined since the pandemic and this is the new normal. The essentials that a household cannot survive without are likely to never retreat to 2019 levels. Shelter alone accounted for 36% of CPI in 2024, rising 5.2% throughout the year. Baseline shelter costs were around 30%–yes 30%–lower in 2019.
Grocery items have been highly volatile, and government data suggests they have increased 12% since the pandemic, but anyone with access to a grocery store can dispute this claim.
Companies are cutting costs, beginning with entry-level and low-level work. Lower-income positions have seen only around a 1% rise in wages this past year and have not kept up with inflation in the least. Job openings are declining as companies scale back, outsource, or automate.
Is it any wonder that the welfare state continues to multiply? The government spends billions each month on supplementing income and its never enough. State budgets are suffering as cracks begin to appear in the system. They found the funds to support millions of migrants and now voters are wondering why the government is unable to step in for them. Naturally the government still demands taxes from the lowest earners and will never drop rates because they too are living on debt.
Those with the least are the first to feel the impact, but it vibrates throughout the entire economy. A separate poll by Harris found that three-quarters of Americans earning over $100,000 annually live paycheck to paycheck and rely on credit for necessities. Bank of America also noted that countless people living in poverty are unbanked and were not accounted for in their study. Consumers are the backbone of America’s economy. The red warning signs are everywhere: the system is crumbling.