A growing share of lower-income Americans are struggling to get by financially as their wages fail to keep up with inflation, according to a recent analysis.

Roughly 29% of lower-income households are living paycheck to paycheck, up slightly from 2024 and from 27.1% in 2023, data from the Bank of America Institute shows. The financial firm defines that as spending more than 95% of household income on necessities such as housing, gasoline, groceries, utility bills and internet service.

In 2025, nearly a quarter of all U.S. households lived paycheck to paycheck, Bank of America estimates. Several factors explain why many people are falling behind.

First, the nation's inflation rate this year has edged up to an annual rate of 3% after dipping to 2.3% in April. The rise in consumer pri

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