A growing share of lower-income Americans are struggling to get by financially as their wages fail to keep up with inflation, according to a recent analysis.
Roughly 29% of lower-income households are living paycheck to paycheck, up slightly from 2024 and from 27.1% in 2023, data from the Bank of America Institute shows. The financial firm defines that as spending more than 95% of household income on necessities such as housing, gasoline, groceries, utility bills and internet service.
In 2025, nearly a quarter of all U.S. households lived paycheck to paycheck, Bank of America estimates.
I started making 6 figures (barely. Literally salaried at 100k) a few years ago, from poverty wages. I get why people struggle around 100k. Its almost enough, but not quite, to comfortably live the american dream.
It allowed me to barely afford a decent house where i live instead of perpetually renting. If I did not have low rent before, that probably wouldn’t have happened either way.
Now I am tied to my job no matter how unhappy I am until I can afford some sort of change. Whenever that will be.
These cost of living increases are making things significantly more difficult, but I can’t imagine how it’d be if I was never given any sort of a break.
Makes me more sympathetic, and far more angry with this shit, knowing that I was probably one bad day away from being homeless instead.