An average American income isn’t enough for a comfortable living in 2023, according to two recent reports.  The typical U.S. family earns about $71,000 per year, according to the Census. Yet, …

The typical U.S. family earns about $71,000 per year, according to the Census. Yet, the average American believes a family needs at least $85,000 in annual household income to get by, according to a recent Gallup poll.

That finding tracks with a recent study from SmartAsset, a financial technology company, which found the average American worker needs $68,499 in after-tax income to live comfortably. (That works out to around $85,000 in total income, assuming a 20-percent tax hit.)

The two releases point to the same conclusion: Many Americans earn too little in 2023 to attain a decent standard of living in their communities.

  • @bdiddyEnglish
    16•1 year ago

    reducing housing and health insurance cost and that number freaking halves.

    Our politicians could very easily solve this. The problem will only get worse if we just keep paying more and more for everything so that everyone can constantly make crazy amounts of money.

    85k is still a shit load of money, but it seems like it’s not because your basic starter home is 400,000 lol.

    We can fix that with legislation. Then lets get some free ass health care for fucksake. For a family to have a medicore insurance plan it’s 1000+ per month.

    • Reese
      2•1 year ago

      Starter home is 400k, and rent starts at 2k a month in my shithole city where flood insurance is now made up.

    • pragmakist
      2•1 year ago

      You should be aware that here in Denmark we pay about as much as you Americans for our healthcare.
      Those of who don’t use it that is.

      It’s really only if you need it that having paid through your taxes instead of through insurance makes a difference.

      (And there’s plenty of European nations that have sort of functional healthcare financed by some kind of insurance system.)

      • GizmoLion
        2•1 year ago

        I don’t have a statistic to provide, but I would be willing to bet 80%+ of American households have some deferred medical issue. Whether it’s getting something checked out, teeth cleaned, affording prescribed meds etc.

        As it is now people die rather than see a doctor because they don’t want to empty the family coffers over what might be nothing.

  • @toxic@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3•1 year ago

    Take into account that the ‘average American’ also likely makes closer to the median salary ($45,000) than the average salary due to all the billionaires offsetting the average.

    • eggmasterflexEnglish
      3•1 year ago

      The $71,000 figure in the article is the median, not average. The source is linked there.

  • @seeCseas@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1•1 year ago

    This is exactly why people are angry. How is it possible that, for all the advances we’ve made, more than half the population is struggling to get by?

    At the risk of being accused of shameless self-promotion (which… i guess this is), come to !workreform@lemmy.world if you believe labour should be paid more equitably. We create value, not shareholders.