By Tami Luhby, May 18, 2018<\/p>\n
The economy may be chugging along, but many Americans are still struggling to afford a basic middle class life.<\/p>\n
Nearly 51 million households don’t earn enough to afford a monthly budget that includes housing, food, child care, health care, transportation and a cell phone, according to a study<\/a>released Thursday by the United Way ALICE Project. That’s 43% of households in the United States.<\/p>\n The figure includes the 16.1 million households living in poverty, as well as the 34.7 million families that the United Way has dubbed ALICE — Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. This group makes less than what’s needed “to survive in the modern economy.”<\/p>\n “Despite seemingly positive economic signs<\/a>, the ALICE data shows that financial hardship is still a pervasive problem,” said Stephanie Hoopes, the project’s director.<\/p>\n California, New Mexico and Hawaii have the largest share of struggling families, at 49% each. North Dakota has the lowest at 32%.<\/p>\n Many of these folks are the nation’s child care workers, home health aides, office assistants and store clerks, who work low-paying jobs and have little savings, the study noted. Some 66% of jobs in the US pay less than $20 an hour.<\/p>\n The study also drilled down to the county level.<\/p>\n For instance, in Seattle’s King County, the annual household survival budget for a family of four (including one infant and one preschooler) in 2016 was nearly $85,000. This would require an hourly wage of $42.46. But in Washington State, only 14% of jobs pay more than $40 an hour.<\/p>\n Seattle’s City Council just passed a controversial tax <\/a>on big businesses to help alleviate the city’s growing homelessness and affordable housing problems.<\/p>\n