More than one-third of high-earning American workers are cash-strapped, a figure that has risen dramatically in recent years.
As claimed by other recent polls and studies, the average American worker is struggling in this high-inflationary environment.
With U.S. inflation still at a four-decade high, a new survey reveals how difficult it is for many American workers, even those with substantial incomes, to make ends meet.
According to a poll conducted by the consulting firm Willis Towers Watson, 36% of U.S. workers with annual salaries of at least six figures are living paycheck to paycheck, a twofold increase from 2019.
"Employees at higher pay levels aren't immune to living paycheck to paycheck," the financial wellbeing market leader for North America at Willis Towers Watson, Mark Smrecek, told CNBC.
Rapidly rising costs for groceries, transportation, and other areas of household budgets, according to Smrecek, could further strain families' ability to save money.
As reported by a separate survey by Salary Finance, more than 75% of working Americans admitted that high inflation has harmed their finances in the last year. In fact, approximately 20% said they frequently ran out of money between paychecks, up from 15% last year. Furthermore, according to Moody's Analytics, hot-running inflation costs the average American household an extra $327 per month.
Paycheck-to-paycheck consumers are divided into two groups: those who can easily pay their bills and those who cannot. In April 2022, 61% of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck. Thirty-six percent of consumers earning $100,000 to $150,000, 31% earning $150,000 to $200,000, 26% earning $200,000 to $250,000, and 24% earning more than $250,000 were living paycheck to paycheck with no financial difficulties.
Furthermore, between 10% and 12% of consumers in these higher-income brackets were living paycheck to paycheck with bills unpaid in April 2022, while 19% of middle-income consumers (those earning $50,000 to $100,000) and 36% of lower-income consumers (those earning less than $50,000) were living paycheck to paycheck with bills unpaid.
