{"id":290,"date":"2026-06-04T21:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T21:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/officemovingamerica.com\/?p=290"},"modified":"2026-06-04T21:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T21:15:11","slug":"nearly-half-of-u-s-households-cant-make-ends-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/officemovingamerica.com\/?p=290","title":{"rendered":"Nearly Half of U.S. Households Can\u2019t Make Ends Meet"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>Could your household cope with a $1,000 increase in the annual cost of living?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>That\u2019s less than $100 per month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>But the Brookings Institution estimates in a new report that such an increase would mean 3 million more American households could no longer make ends meet, leading some \u201cto forgo rent, utility or debt payments, which can compound into larger financial or health challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/officemovingamerica.com\/?p=288\">Wall Street Banks and CEOs Promote SpaceX in Flashy Events With BofA, Morgan Stanley, JPM Events Planned<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Brookings\u2019 \u201c<u>States of Affordability<\/u>\u201d report offers a detailed \u2013 and sobering \u2013 look at the cost of living across all 50 states and across racial demographics at a time when voters say that\u2019s their top concern.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The report takes a long view. Yes, the midterm elections are scarcely 150 days away, but Brookings scanned the affordability landscape back to 2014, giving readers a fuller sense of Americans\u2019 financial health.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h2><b>The Big Takeaway<\/b><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Many of them are struggling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>In 2024, 45.5% of all U.S. households did not earn enough to make ends meet, which Brookings defined as enough to cover the cost of necessities. Those include housing, food, child care, transportation and things like utilities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The problem affects every region \u2013 blue states and red states alike.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>But it varies widely. In Colorado, the Dakotas, New Hampshire and Washington, D.C., more than 60% of households report making ends meet. (My home state of Vermont comes in at a respectable 56.9%.) But in places like California, Kentucky, Louisiana, New York and Oregon, fewer than 50% say the same. In Hawaii, it\u2019s just 39%, the lowest on the map.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<h2><b>The Long View<\/b><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>While we seem to be talking a lot more about affordability these days \u2013 maybe starting with the inflation spike of 2022 \u2013 the report makes clear the problem stretches over at least the entire decade.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>In nearly every year since 2014, more than 40% of households struggled to make ends meet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The only exceptions? The post-pandemic recovery of 2021 and 2022, when the federal government unlocked a range of benefits for millions of Americans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>As those benefits expired and costs rose, the proportion of Americans reporting they were making ends meet dove sharply.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cWhile the share of households making ends meet increased by 2 percentage points over the decade, that share dropped by a full 10 percentage points in just two years following the COVID-19 pandemic, from 2022 to 2024, erasing most of the gains made earlier in the decade,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/officemovingamerica.com\/?p=286\">USDA Expects to Contain Screwworm Case in Texas, Rollins Says<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>(In a previous professional incarnation, I <u>argued<\/u> in 2023 that the expiration of so many benefits was the biggest political story of the moment.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cWhen costs exceed incomes, families are forced to make painful tradeoffs. They postpone <u>critical medical care<\/u>, forgo <u>healthy food<\/u> or skip meals, and go <u>further<\/u> into debt,\u201d Brookings says. \u201cWhat remains less clear \u2013 for families on both sides of the poverty line \u2013 is a path to solving the affordability crisis given all its dimensions, from <u>stagnating incomes<\/u> and <u>declining upward mobility<\/u> to rising costs for everyday necessities.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><svg><\/svg><\/p>\n<p><span>READ: <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Americans Are Tapping Out Their Savings<\/p><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<h2><b>Racial Divides<\/b><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>In 2024, 55% of U.S. households of color reported not being able to make ends meet, the report says. And \u201cover the 2014-to-2024 period, the shares of Black and Latino or Hispanic households making ends meet were the lowest of any demographic group.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>However, in some states, households of color posted larger gains than the state did overall.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>In Georgia, for instance, the proportion of households of color reporting they were making ends meet rose seven percentage points from 2014 to 2024 (to 45%). For the state overall, the rise was three points (to 52%).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h2><b>The Fix?<\/b><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Affordability is the relationship between income and costs. Raise incomes, lower costs, and it gets easier to make ends meet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cMore affordable lives are within reach,\u201d Brookings asserts. \u201cAs of 2024, 37.9 million U.S. households could afford to make ends meet with a raise of $10 an hour. Additionally, if costs declined by $500 per month, another 10 million households could make ends meet.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>A $10\/hour raise? It\u2019s not clear that\u2019s politically \u201cwithin reach\u201d in a country where the federal minimum wage has been at $7.25\/hour since 2009.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/officemovingamerica.com\/?p=284\">US Will Uphold Tariff Caps in Deals With EU, Japan and Others, U.S. Trade Chief Says<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>America\u2019s cost-of-living crisis predates the pandemic, a comprehensive report finds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4,6,153,152,8],"class_list":["post-290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-news-decision-points","tag-economy","tag-inflation","tag-money","tag-personal-finance","tag-sign-in-to-manage-your-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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