PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK. It's a phrase that conjures up an image of people in unusual – and often temporary – circumstances. The single parent, trying to keep the rent paid and kids watched and fed with a job that offers flexibility, but not necessarily a good salary. The person without a college or even high school education, relegated to a minimum wage job. The family in which one parent has been laid off.
In fact, living paycheck to paycheck – meaning there's not a cash cushion to cover the bills if the income stops for awhile – is a common condition in America. In the 12th richest nation in the world by per capita GDP, nearly 8 in 10 U.S. workers live paycheck to paycheck, according to a 2017 study by CareerBuilder, a human capital management firm. And the trend crosses over income groups: more than half of minimum wage workers said they needed to hold down two jobs to make ends meet, while one in 10 workers earning $100,000 or more yearly say they live paycheck to paycheck.
And if there's an emergency? A large number of Americans don't have an accessible stash of money to cover a substantial health care expense or car repair, studies show. The Federal Reserve Board in 2017 found that 44 percent of American households surveyed could not cover a $400 emergency expense. A separate BankRate study last year yielded similar results, finding that while 34 percent of those surveyed had experienced a major unexpected expense in the previous year, just 39 percent of those surveyed said they could tap $1,000 from savings to cover it.
[For more on this story by Susan Milligan, go to https://www.usnews.com/news/th...paycheck-to-paycheck]
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