Rising Cost of Living and Slow Wage Growth Creates Major Challenges

The Challenge: Across all backgrounds are struggling to afford basic living expenses, with wages failing to keep pace with rising costs for essentials like food, housing, and healthcare, leaving working families, seniors on fixed incomes, and long-time workers unable to meet everyday needs.

What do South Carolinians think? The affordability squeeze is felt across generations. A manufacturing worker wrote: "my co-workers and I make $12 an hour — it is barely enough to live on." A 71-year-old on a fixed income reported: "groceries usually run me over $100 each week." A college-educated participant asked: "I’ve worked for 20 years and why can’t I afford the basics?" Another described the "I’ve gone to food banks and my kids have been bullied because of it."