Three-quarters of Americans (75%) are living paycheck-to-paycheck to make ends meet, according to a survey from CareerBuilder. Thirty-eight percent of employees said they sometimes live paycheck-to-paycheck, 15% said they usually do and 23% said they always do.
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While making ends meet is a struggle for many post-recession, those with minimum wage jobs continue to be hit the hardest. Of workers who currently have a minimum wage job or have held one in the past, 66% said they couldn’t make ends meet and 50% said they had to work more than one job to make it work.
More than 3,200 full-time workers and more than 2,100 full-time hiring and human resource managers in the private sector across industries participated in the nationwide survey, conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder.
It’s not just minimum wage workers who are struggling. Nineteen percent of workers at all salary levels were not able to make ends meet every month during the past year, and while the likelihood of living paycheck-to-paycheck naturally decreases for workers with higher salaries, it’s affecting all salary ranges.
Nine percent of workers making $100,000 or more feel they usually or always live paycheck-to-paycheck. Twenty-three percent of workers making $50,000 to $99,999, and 51% of those making less than $50,000 feel they usually or always do (live paycheck to paycheck) to make ends meet.