According to the poll, 75% of hourly employees said that rising inflation was making it difficult for them to pay their expenditures. In addition, 81 percent of respondents claimed that rising petrol costs were making it harder for them to cover other required expenses.
Additionally, hourly employees claimed they were having trouble covering a variety of costs: 49% said they were having trouble with their grocery expenditures, and 40% said they were having trouble with their electricity payments. Additionally, 34% of respondents stated it was difficult to make their mortgage payments.
Since 77 percent of respondents reported that the stress of paying bills had a negative influence on their health, rising inflation is affecting hourly employees’ well-being as much as their wallets.
In 2022, 22% of the workers questioned took out payday loans to deal with the rising cost of petrol and other financial difficulties. These difficulties are made worse by the fact that 35% of hourly employees overall report not obtaining a salary raise in the last year, and this percentage rises to 49% for hourly workers with annual family incomes under $50,000.
Daily Pay and Funding our Future hired the Harris Poll to conduct the online poll on their behalf. The study, which was conducted from May 24-26 and included 654 hourly workers, had a +/- 2.4 percent margin of error.
An overwhelming majority of Americans (97 percent) agree that inflation is either a crisis or a problem, while 92 percent of Americans believe that gas costs are a severe concern as the US struggles with 40-year-high inflation during the Biden administration.
According to the American Automobile Association, the average gas price nationwide as of June 25 was $4.908—an increase of about $2 from the previous year.
