‘Things are pretty crappy.’ 1 in 4 US households are living paycheck to paycheck

[Guno צְבִי]

Austin H. can’t wait to buy a house and start a family. But right now, the 34-year-old is barely getting by.

Austin is living paycheck to paycheck and saving almost no money, one of the millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet in an increasingly unaffordable economy.

Worse, the family-owned construction business he works at is shutting down.

“I am going to be unemployed in the next month or two – with no safety net,” said Austin, who declined to share his last name.

An estimated 24% of US households are living paycheck to paycheck so far in 2025, according to a Bank of America Institute analysis released this week. The bank’s researchers combed through internal data on its tens of millions of consumers and tracked how much income customers spent on necessities like housing, gasoline, groceries, child care and utilities.

‘Things are pretty crappy.’ 1 in 4 US households are living paycheck to paycheck

Austin H. can’t wait to buy a house and start a family. But right now, the 34-year-old is barely getting by.

news.yahoo.com

 

[cawacko]

Two things can be true. Things are crappy but if that's the case, how bad were things in 2023 when more than 60% of the country lived paycheck to paycheck?

Going from over 60% to 25% is a pretty big drop in a crappy economy.


Here's the 2023 article:

More than 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Here's what researchers say is to blame.​

More than 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Here's what researchers say is to blame.

Even 4 in 10 high-income households earning more than $100,000 are living paycheck to paycheck, a new study finds.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[cawacko]

What’s interesting is that when articles like this were posted in the past, it was usually to support arguments for a higher minimum wage.

But even the articles themselves point out that plenty of people who make good money still live paycheck to paycheck because of lifestyle choices. People think that if they make more money they’ll be better off, but if they just spend more they’re not in a different position.