Forty Percent of NYC’s Working Families Don’t Make Enough to Afford Basics, a New Study Shows

With the cost of living rising at nearly three times the rate of wages, 2.5 million working-age New Yorkers are struggling to provide food, housing, and other basic necessities for their families.

Board member Merble Reagon and the Women’s Center for Education and Career Advancement, in collaboration with City Harvest, and The New York Community Trust, has unveiled the 2018 New York City Self-Sufficiency Standard. The Standard measures how much income is needed to meet families’ basic needs at a minimally adequate level, including the essential expenses faced by workers, but without any public or private assistance. Explore what they’ve learned in the interactive Key Findings, Map, and Budget Worksheet.