{"id":18075,"date":"2008-02-20T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2008-02-20T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/a-widening-hardship-gap\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:43:26","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:43:26","slug":"a-widening-hardship-gap","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2008\/02\/20\/a-widening-hardship-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"A Widening Hardship Gap"},"content":{"rendered":"

The gap between the wealthiest and poorest people in the difficulty they report in affording basic items is much wider now than it was in 1992; fully 62% of self-described \u201cworking class\u201d people \u2014 a group that makes up 47% of the general public \u2014 now say their incomes are falling behind the cost of living, up from 45% in September 2007. A much smaller proportion of self-described \u201cprofessional or business class\u201d people (32% of the public) say their incomes are falling behind (40%), and there has been only a modest increase since September in the percentage expressing this view (six points). People who say their households are \u201cstruggling\u201d (15% of the public) remain most likely to say their incomes are falling behind (85%). The recent rise in the percentage of Americans who say that their incomes are falling behind the cost of living has come largely among middle-income and poor people. Roughly seven-in-ten (71%) of those with household incomes of less than $50,000 a year say their incomes are falling behind the cost of living, up 16 points since last September. By contrast, only a third (33%) of those with household incomes of $100,000 a year or more say their incomes are not keeping pace with the cost of living, up modestly since September (four points). Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The gap between the wealthiest and poorest people in affording basic items is much wider now than it was during the 1992 economic downturn; more than six-in-ten (62%) self-described \u201cworking class\u201d people now say their incomes are falling behind the cost of living<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_crdt_document":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"bylines":[{"key":"2cc2f7781c9c7af20d4ee2c65d29cd3e","termId":607}],"acknowledgements":[],"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[239,240],"bylines":[791],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-18075","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-economic-inequality","category-poverty","bylines-pew-research-center-staff","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":203,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2008\/02\/20\/a-widening-hardship-gap\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"A Widening Hardship Gap","description":"The gap between the wealthiest and poorest people in affording basic items is much wider now than it was during the 1992 economic downturn; 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