Putting bread on the table is easier for some Americans than others. More than three quarters of U.S. adults (78%) have little to no room to stretch their budget to cope with with rising inflation, according to a recent Forbes Advisor survey of 2,000 people. The reason? Most of their income is being spent on food and housing.
To make matters worse, 40% of those surveyed said they were relying on credit cards more often as a result of inflation, which recently hit a 41-year high of 9.1% on the year in June. Another 27% of those polled said they were hitting their spending limit, while 25% said that they have little space left in their budget. There has been some relief for workers, however. On July 1, three states, 16 cities and counties, and the District of Columbia all raised their minimum wages. Non-tipped workers in Washington, D.C., for instance, started making an hourly wage of $16.10. Connecticut residents who previously made the minimum wage of $13 an hour will now earn $14 an hour. Oregon workers saw their minimum wage go up to $13.50 an hour. In Nevada, wages increased to $10.50 for workers without health benefits and $9.50 for workers with benefits. “At a time when families are coping with rising prices, these increases will help many low-wage workers and their families make ends meet,” Sebastian Martinez Hickey and David Cooper, researchers with the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, said. The researchers, in a working pape …