Talking Points …
- U.S. household spending has fully recovered since the latest recession, but income hasn’t, squeezing budgets and pushing many lower-income families into the red, according to a Pew Charitable Trusts report.
- Pew found that as of 2014, median income before taxes had fallen by 13 percent from a decade earlier, while expenditures had increased by nearly 14 percent. That left families across the income spectrum with fewer funds for savings and investment.
- Housing, transportation, and food drove much of the rise in spending, leaving families with less financial wiggle room. Rent is now eating up nearly half of the income of low-income families, Pew found.