Asset-Poor Households in the US

Number of asset-poor Americans rising, By Becky Yerak, January 31, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “Luz Pagan, 45, has been working as a part-time cashier at a discount store in downtown Chicago for nearly three years, her requests to become a full-time employee with benefits having gone nowhere. The single mom and her 12-year-old son, Marvin, have been living in a $575-a-month studio apartment on the North Side since November. But with a work schedule averaging 15 to 20 hours a week, in a job paying about $8.75 an hour, Pagan is struggling to cover living expenses and has to scrape together money from friends and family. Her last paycheck netted $64. ‘I’m underemployed,’ said Pagan, who previously lived in a shelter for two months. She has an associate’s degree and would love an office job. Marvin’s dad helps with expenses, but she said she and her son – a mostly A and B student who wants to be a doctor – are living paycheck to paycheck, with no savings. Pagan’s plight is becoming more commonplace. Nationwide, 27 percent of households are ‘asset poor,’ meaning they don’t have enough money tucked away to cover basic expenses for three months in case of a layoff or other emergency that saps income, according to a study to be released Tuesday by the Washington-based Corporation for Enterprise Development…”