Prices are rising faster than wages, and more Americans than ever are working two full-time jobs simultaneously.
Albert Elliott has been fueling up his Kia Soul in increments of $15, $20 and $25 to make the 60-mile commute from Fayetteville, N.C., to an Amazon warehouse in Raleigh, where he makes $15.75 an hour. Lately, he doesn’t have enough cash to fill his tank the entire way.In June, gas prices had gotten so steep that Elliot took on a second job as a janitor at a community college, working an extra two days a week for $10 an hour.
A tight labor market has pushed wages up across the board — but not enough to keep pace with inflation, whichseek second jobs and increase their hours to pay for their normal expenses. The percentage of employed people working multiple jobs in the United States has steadily increased since March 2020 from 4 percent in April 2020 to 4.8 percent in June 2022,from the St. Louis Federal Reserve, although it has not returned to its pre-pandemic levels. In February 2020, 5.
“People most hurt by high inflation are also seeing a ton of job growth,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. “Given the burden of high inflation and high job availability, it’s not at all a surprise to me that you’d see people doubling up on jobs.”
The costs of essentials like gas, food and rent have especially skyrocketed as inflation rose, according to BLS reports. That has disproportionately hurt low-wage workers, who typically suffer most from high inflation because they devote a higher share of their income to those expenses — which are harder to cut back on.
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