States that offer the best & worst chance of earning a living wage

Slideshow November 24, 2021 at 12:01 AM
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In addition to impacting workers' compensation, wages can have a big impact on a person's ability to accrue insurable assets and experiences, whether that be a home, automobile or trip into space. Additionally, financial anxiety is a common cause of stress across several demographics, but families with dependent children is a group where it is felt most keenly, according to a recent study from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation and Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center. In fact, these stresses appear in families across the board regardless of income levels: "Even among respondents with higher than median income ($50–99K)," said the study's authors, "close to 60% reported feeling financial anxiety when thinking about their personal finances." Although financial stress is no respecter of salary level, families will have an easier shot at a livable wage depending on where they are in the United States. A new study from Lending Tree shows which states have the highest percentages of workers in occupations that pay above a living wage. Lending Tree found that 57.2% of American workers are employed in occupations in which the median pay is greater than the living wage for families with two working adults and one child. That percentage drops significantly to 21.7% for single parents with a child. To compile their list, researchers at Lending Tree used 2020 data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Living Wage Calculator as well as 2020 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program. See our slideshow above for the states with the highest and lowest percentages of workers in occupations paying above a living wage, and click here for the full study. Related: