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Inflation has hit its highest level in more than three years. The Labor Department issued numbers this morning showing consumer prices in May up 4.2% from a year ago, and that might make the conditions in our next story even worse. Many Americans are living close to the financial edge, and a report shows just how close. NPR's Stephan Bisaha has more.
STEPHAN BISAHA, BYLINE: Siara Mims works as a chiropractic technician in Raleigh, North Carolina.
SIARA MIMS: So I love my job.
BISAHA: She loves helping her patients heal and loves her colleagues. The job pays about $47,000 a year - well below her state's median household income.
MIMS: The financial weight is incredibly heavy, and especially on my wife because she's disabled.
BISAHA: Mims says her wife works hard when she can, but it's difficult. So they mostly get by on what Mims' job pays.
MIMS: Yeah. So the joke about my bills is that they take turns being late.
BISAHA: Those bills include $1,300 for their two-bedroom apartment, all the vet care for their two dogs and health insurance at $384 a month.
MIMS: So then when it comes to the medical care itself, you know, it tends to mean that there's debt that's coming up. It means that we push off the appointments.
BISAHA: Mims has gotten raises at her job, and she's prioritized paying the rent, but she still can't cover all her costs.
MIMS: Definitely not. No. And right now especially, we are relying on several food pantries.
BISAHA: Mims is far from alone in not making enough to cover the cost of necessities. That was true for more than 45% of American households, according to a new report from the Brookings Institution, which uses the latest available data from 2024. Hannah Stephens is a senior research assistant at Brookings and says this affordability problem is not new.
HANNAH STEPHENS: This is something that has been a long-standing problem for a huge swath of Americans since at least 2014.
BISAHA: And there are even more Americans living right near that financial brink. The report found it would take just a $1,000 increase in the yearly cost of living to send another 3 million households over that point. And since 2024, the cost of living has gone up, like for gas and electricity. Families can find ways to save on some of those things, but there are the larger and structural expenses families can't easily cut back on.
STEPHENS: Housing, healthcare, childcare - these are the biggest components of a family's budget, and they are largely determined by systems outside of a family's control.
BISAHA: Siara Mims was not shocked to hear about all the other families in her position.
MIMS: Because of seeing so many people in my community that are sleeping on sidewalks and are also, you know, begging for food - the lines, the huge families at food pantries - it certainly feels that it's far worse as of this year.
BISAHA: Mims is considering finding a second job for her days off to try and make ends meet.
Stephan Bisaha, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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