New Report Indicates 44% Of American Families Struggle To Meet Basic Needs

According to Jason Rahlan, the VP of corporate responsibility and sustainability for Dayforce, employers have an easy fix for the problem: raising wages.

According to a new joint report from Dayforce and the Living Wage Corporation, 44% of American full-time employees do not make enough money to cover their family’s basic needs.

The report utilized data from 600,000 full-time employees, which was run through MIT’s Living Wage calculator. The recommended living wage in America is context-specific; it varies based on location and cost of living. For example, the living wage in Sacramento County, California, for a couple with two children, is $31.43, while the living wage in Marshall County, Kansas, with the same parameters, is $22.46.

Kavya Vaghul, the co-founder and chief product officer of the Living Wage Institute, told Fortune, “This report should be a wake-up call. It tracks really closely with what we hear the American public is experiencing when it comes to the inflationary environment. You have prices skyrocketing on basic goods and services, and as a result of that, many people are not able to meet basic needs.”

Vaghul continued, discussing the impact of the economic climate on women. “With women, there are several factors that drive the report’s findings, and they’re all connected to a pernicious history of societal biases as well as discriminatory and unequal labor market policies that are continuing to contribute to the disparities that we see by gender.”

Black and Latinx workers also face inequality. They are twice as likely as white workers not to make ends meet. The two ethnicities, respectively, earn $8.20 and $7.70 less per hour than white workers, signifying a significant gap in earning potential.

According to Jason Rahlan, the VP of corporate responsibility and sustainability for Dayforce, employers have an easy fix for the problem: raising wages. Unless, he says, they want to lose talented workers to other companies.

“People not making a living wage are more likely to report struggling to pay for housing, overdrawing their checking and savings accounts, skipping healthcare and purchasing medicine,” Rahlan told Fortune. “When workers are at higher risk of suffering these negative outcomes, they’re going to be more at risk for leaving a workplace and seeking another job opportunity because they need the opportunity for a life of health, fulfillment, and dignity.”

Rahlan continued, “Companies making the choice to invest in their people and address living wage gaps in their workforce is not only the right thing to do for their people, but the smart thing to do for their business.”