Is paycheck-to-paycheck considered an upgrade now?

Miami Herald

a day ago

Four in 10 hourly workers say that living paycheck to paycheck would be an upgrade from their current financial situation, according to a new study.
The survey of 2,000 American workers who get paid on an hourly basis, with a quota for 1,000 Gen Z workers and 1,000 retail workers, found that 39% would see living from paycheck to paycheck as an improvement in their finances.
Digging into hourly workers' dire financial circumstances, almost half (44%) have overdrafted their bank accounts in the last month.
Thirty-eight percent currently have less than $1,000 in their bank accounts and a fifth (19%) have taken out a loan in the last year to make ends meet financially.
Commissioned by DailyPay and conducted by Talker Research, the study examined hourly workers' financial wellbeing, the lengths they've gone to stay afloat financially in the last year and how challenging times have negatively affected their mental health.
The results revealed that more than a third of hourly workers (34%) rely on more than one job to get by.
Yet, long hours and side hustles haven't solved employees' problems. Many have had to resort to extreme measures to make enough money.
One respondent shared, "I recently sold my shoes and my PS5 to create an extra source of income," while another admitted, "I have gone dumpster diving looking for things to sell."
To save money in between paychecks, many (38%) have canceled various subscriptions while nearly a third (31%) said they've had to refrain from buying literally anything at all while waiting for their next paycheck.
Seeing how all this has affected workers' wellbeing, one person said, "My mental health is worse than it has ever been and as a result, my physical health is also declining rapidly."
Another shared, "Financial struggles have affected not only my wellbeing but also the relationships around me. It's difficult to maintain a social life when you don't have any money."
It's no surprise that half (50%) feel their financial health is out of their control.
Nearly one in three (32%) have had difficulty paying their bills on time in the last year and 29% have received a "past due" notice about a bill.
Another quarter (28%) have had to borrow money from friends and rely on financial support from family to simply get by.
"For workers living paycheck to paycheck, many of whom are hourly employees, being paid weekly or even daily is preferable to other types of pay," said Cary Carbonaro, certified financial planner and author of "Women and Wealth." "For many hourly workers, their top priority is simply meeting their short-term needs, like buying groceries and paying rent, which is where on-demand pay can help."
One in two hourly workers (50%) have limited access to their wages in between pay periods.
Seeing how on-demand pay could change their financial health, for those that don't already have it, most hourly workers (78%) feel that on-demand pay would improve their finances.
Forty percent of those say on-demand pay would allow them to pay for day-to-day necessities when they actually need them, 31% feel it would make them more financially secure overall and 30% believe it would help them enjoy their lives more in general.
For those who do already have access to their wages on-demand, it's helped them afford things like groceries and toiletries (22%), pay their bills on time (20%) and lower their financial stress (15%).
Survey methodology:
Talker Research surveyed 1,000 retail workers (of any age) on an hourly salary and 1,000 Gen Z workers on an hourly salary from any sector of work; the survey was commissioned by DailyPay and administered and conducted online by Talker Research between May 13 and May 21, 2025
We are sourcing from a non-probability frame and the two main sources we use are:
Traditional online access panels - where respondents opt-in to take part in online market research for an incentiveProgrammatic - where respondents are online and are given the option to take part in a survey to receive a virtual incentive usually related to the online activity they are engaging in
Those who did not fit the specified sample were terminated from the survey. As the survey is fielded, dynamic online sampling is used, adjusting targeting to achieve the quotas specified as part of the sampling plan.
Regardless of which sources a respondent came from, they were directed to an Online Survey, where the survey was conducted in English; a link to the questionnaire can be shared upon request. Respondents were awarded points for completing the survey. These points have a small cash-equivalent monetary value.
Cells are only reported on for analysis if they have a minimum of 80 respondents, and statistical significance is calculated at the 95% level. Data is not weighted, but quotas and other parameters are put in place to reach the desired sample.
Interviews are excluded from the final analysis if they failed quality-checking measures. This includes:
Speeders: Respondents who complete the survey in a time that is quicker than one-third of the median length of interview are disqualified as speedersOpen ends: All verbatim responses (full open-ended questions as well as other please specify options) are checked for inappropriate or irrelevant textBots: Captcha is enabled on surveys, which allows the research team to identify and disqualify botsDuplicates: Survey software has "deduping" based on digital fingerprinting, which ensures nobody is allowed to take the survey more than once
It is worth noting that this survey was only available to individuals with internet access, and the results may not be generalizable to those without internet access.
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