Purchasing Power

A recent poll found that nearly half of people in the world’s richest country are having difficulty affording basic necessities like groceries, utility bills, health care, housing, and transportation. A new Institute for Policy Studies report shines a spotlight on the role leading corporations are playing in this affordability crisis. The report analyzes the 20 largest employers of low-wage U.S. workers, a group we’ve dubbed the “Low-Wage 20.”  Our analysis finds that at half of these firms, median worker pay actually declined in real terms between 2019 and 2024. For the group as a whole, average median pay dropped 4.6 percent to just $29,087.