This is why a lot of millennials and members of the new generation are choosing to no longer have kids. The cost of living is at a point where kids are far too unaffordable

Decades of companies not sharing the success of their growth with their employees is what got us here.

I grew up poor and made a decision not to have kids because I didn't want that struggle nor subject my kids to that struggle. Sad but true

Everything going up but the pay and yet they sending money to other countries

I love how the moral of the story is “find light at the end of the tunnel” instead of hold companies accountable 😡

On a single income in the 1980s my parents could buy a house, raise kids, pay all their bills, and have money for vacation. It's just not possible anymore

Companies have done a great job in not sharing the profit of their production with the worker, but instead management and the shareholders.

I lost my job in 2009. It has taken 10 years too make back only 85% of the salary, I once made. Europeans work less than us, make more than us, have state insurance, and give their people vacations. We as Americans are not really enjoying life the way we should, because we are not being paid appropriately.

There was a time you could comfortably support a family of three and be a homeowner with just a job at the USPS.

They've been fighting for $15/hr so long that $15/hr isn't even enough anymore. 😢

Finding the light at the end of the tunnel when your basic needs are not being met will eventually cost you your health and life. It is a human right to be able to afford housing, food, health insurance, and a savings. No more being strong when you are being mistreated by your government.

I'm glad they mentioned the part of when you work more or get a little raise that you may lose government benefits that are helping your family. When the little extra you made doesnt cover what you lost. It's like a lose/lose.

Average American housing cost has Quadrupled, but salaries have not even doubled.

What’s insane is that youre taught to go to college, make a good salary, get married and have a dual income and now that you have checked all those boxes, you’ve never struggled so much before it’s insane and it needs to be brought up more

This administration is putting many families in difficult situations. A lot of people are financially struggling to live, put a roof over their head and put food on the table. Things are getting worse these days, if you don't find means of multiplying your money you might wake up a day to realise you didn't plan well for yourself and family.

Where is her husband? Seriously, men need to take care of their children

It's sick that people have to work so tirelessly for such a meager wage.

When my coworkers and friends ask me why I’m almost 30 with no kids. Most people are one car accident or medical emergency away from struggling and don’t even know it.

I never had kids because I knew I could never afford them unless I was living on some type of welfare. I worked full time for 40 years in the state of Texas which still has a minimum wage of $ 7.50 an hour. Please tell me where someone making that kind of money can rent an apartment without some kind of assistance?! Ridiculous. So after federal taxes and social security are taken out of your minimum wage pay check you maybe have $1000 a month. A one bedroom apt now rents at over $1200 a month. Not only can you not afford rent, you can’t pay for food, utilities, medical insurance, apt insurance, emergencies, clothes, toiletries, forget ever owning a car or even going out to eat, skip Christmas, birthdays, haircuts or any of life’s necessities!!!!!! All the while you the “ modern day serf” are making the CEOs wealthier and wealthier. Then the bean counters up in Washington are telling you there will be no social security when you can no longer work so you had better get your act together and put your non existent money into a 401k so that you have a million dollars to finance your “ wink wink” non existent retirement. At least 51 years ago my husband and I could afford to live on minimum wage with both of us working now it is impossible. No wonder so many young people are living at home until they are in their 30s. This country is nothing more than a Banana Republic now. Fortunately my husband and I never went to college hence no student loans. No loans no kids and only ever owned one car. We purchased a small home after renting apts for over 22 years. Paid off small home early and then sold it when the market was at the top in Texas. Took the money and ran and bought a cheaper home in another state. Now both retired with no debt. I feel very badly for the younger people nowadays. Although I have lived through sky rocketing inflation and several recessions as have most of my generation. The difference is pay checks have not kept up with the real cost of living.

Imagine making 45k a year, the government taking 7k at least of that, daycare costs at 12k a year, mortgage/rent 14k, groceries at 7k a year, health insurance 4k a year...not really much left after that. And those are all necessities.

As a 32 year old male. I make $3500-$4000 a month and I’m single with no kids and I can barely make it. I don’t know how people with 3 kids alone are making it.

This legitimately made me cry. 35 years old and I have very little to show for it.

Why does the USA have such low wages? Totally wild to me as the minimum wage in Australia is $23.23 per an hour with most people earning way more then that. Sounds depressing to live in the USA.

I doubt any family in history has been able to do well with one person working 20 hours a week.

Most people have forgotten what hardwork is? How about most employees do the work of 3 people for the pay of one person and are being taken advantage of.

My brothers roommate decided to commit suicide last night. Unchecked mental illness was a big factor, but inability to pay his rent and expenses escalated his crisis for the worse. I don’t know what the fix is and l’m concerned about millions like him in a similar situation.

Living wage is a must. Corporate greed is running rampant, which is the real issue. I feel bad that some small businesses will close, but they can blame giant corporations like Wal-Mart and target for that. Big corporations make it impossible for small businesses to keep up. But paying people enough to afford to live is not the issue. No one working 2-3 jobs should need help from the government, but sadly, that's the america we live in. The government needs to tackle the wealth distribution problem in this country. Soon there will be nothing left for any of us. That why we hardly have a middle class anymore as it is. Increase wages are not the problem, and to blame, increase in wages to increase in price and job loss is bull. We all know the top one percent could take a pay cut. Without us workers, they would gain nothing anyway. But the government won't touch it because they are bought and paid for by the lobbyists in DC they all do it across all parties. The new slogan for our government should be united We stand for the top 1%, not the people.

I appreciate the attitude of people who think we should just keep moving forward and being positive. However, when do we start actually trying to change things instead of just pretending we don't have a problem and being happy despite everything? Why is reality so anathema to a reasonable way to live now? Like, in order to be sane, you have to live with your imagination instead of with what you can see with your own eyes? We're all on the fake it till we make it plan, I suppose. It is great that we all have such spirit and gumption but what about value? Like, how did we get air conditioning, modern automation, electricity and running water to every home and promises that we would have more time with each other to only find that we have half of what we need and otherwise we're supposed to pretend we're fine and happy in order to be fine and happy despite what reason would tell use we should feel?

The nerve of that guy to pay only $1 above minimum wage and call his employees family 😂😂

This same problem is happening here in Japan. Salaries have not increased for over 30 years, but cost of living increases rapidly every year

I live in CO and it's sooooo much more expensive here from when i moved here 4 years ago when i was in the military. Like I'm talking 700 more a month in rent. It's insane.

There is also an increase in the technology a family needs ( example: one phone per person), how often clothing and other items need to be replaced, and how impractical it has become to repair things.

Literally 75% of my income goes to rent. And I have a degree. I was sold the lie that getting a degree would ensure a bright future. I was sold the lie that showing company loyalty would pay off. None of that was true. The working class is starting to see the lies we have been sold our whole life.

My grandfather supported my grandmother and his 5 kids as a welder. And had enough retirement to build a house in the country. It's insane to think about today.

Being a single mom of 4 kids ain’t easy anywhere. Props for even making it work

Cathie really gave me life again after losing my retirement money due to divorce, I can pay my bills today because God sent Cathie Wood to me

The problem is greed, everything in America is for profit. Healthcare, housing, education, transportation (even second hand cars are expensive). Its all geared towards making a profit and increasing the stock price. These profits aren’t trickling down to the workers. Yet the prices of stuff keeps rising. We’re increasingly becoming a dystopian society.

We’re at a point where kids are a luxury now. So sad.

8:30 It was absolutely hilarious to me to see this guy try to backpedal and rationalize in the face of her question. Well done, NBC.

I'm mexican, and we share the same situation. I earn enough to live, but not to buy a house of my own or having several children, and I am actually earning more than friends of mine. I had to save up some money for aprox. 5 years just to be able to buy a car. This situation is affecting all of us, and it doesn't seem like the government care for the people.

"Howard likes to say his employees are family" what a massive red flag, and the lack of shame he has to say that while not even paying his "family" a living wage

If that guy wants to work 70-80hrs a week and not complain about still barely scraping by, and how life absolutely sucks because there's no time to live it, then that's on him. The rest of us don't want to do that because we're not fools. We shouldn't have to waste our lives working and still struggle to live. There's plenty of money to pay us in accordance to our production & even lower prices at the same time. They just choose to line their own pockets and keep us working harder for the scraps.

"Single income" is the most common theme for people struggling.

I watch old movies from the 30s, 40s, 50s, and realize to this day we still can't keep up with the prices of living comfortably or being independent and be able to put away savings for emergency. I'm going thru it and i never thought I'd be in this situation. It's rough. I can't even afford a studio here in California. I honestly think the people in the hill don't care and wants to make sure we stay at the bottom.

60 grand a year is the minimum you need to survive with current cost of living. But business owners and politicians at so old they think that 60 thousand is a lot of money because it was a lot of money when they were 20

If you can't afford to share the wealth your employees have helped generate, you can't afford your employees. The success of any increase in business or expansion is made possible by the people who work to make it happen. This isn't about occupation, this is about what you contribute to make the company you work for successful.

We’re literally praying to be the next Roman Empire. I think we’re in our descent right about now. This is crazy. You add the cost of food, car costs, and college tuition… they’re pricing us out of having a life

What I got out of this was the person who started their own business and works 70 hrs a week is who wins. I saw this coming. I have a degree and haven't worked a job since 2014. I was a single mom of 4 small kids and I wasn't about to limit my income in exchange for food stamps!

Feel for the first young mom who can't make it with her medical tech degree. And she's right; the system penalizes you as soon as you start to make a decent living and try to climb up that ladder just one rung. Keeps you in a vicious cycle. Have a family member experiencing the very same thing . Make more money; lose your benefits 😢

The real issue that gets me so angry is the amount of greedflation that’s happened on basic needs. Some products have increased in cost so much that it makes absolutely no sense.

Someone get this woman a career! Her spirit is everything! May Yah bless her. ❤

Growing up my working class parents were able to afford a modest home in suburbs. Now, even if you're a high earning professional you'd be lucky to afford a decent studio apartment, even luckier if it was in a good safe location.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a small business or big. If you can’t pay your employees the bare minimum. That business should not exist

A Bachelors degree is only worth 15.00 here in Alabama. It’s sad. It’s discouraging b/c what’s the point of going to school for 4 years, graduate only to get offered 15.00 an hr.

The 2 biggest issues are housing costs and food costs. Rent/mortgage should not be more than 33% of total income.

I hate seeing stories like this. Nothing is gonna get done. And it’s like rich people like watching regular people talk about how much they can’t afford nothing.

This has been going on for decades. When I was looking for my first house in the 00s, I just didn't buy one. For every dollar I saved on my post-graduate job for a down payment, the cost of the house went up by $2. I opted to just... not buy a house. It was a tough pill to swallow for a person that "did everything right." I got great grades in school, bought my first car cash - used - nothing fancy. Saved a lot of my income. But it amounted to nothing. It wasn't until the economy cratered that I was fortunate enough to buy a real fixer-upper in an area of the country where the cost of living was very low. That's what it took. I fear for the next generation - my kids. As someone involved in hiring at my company - in a field where the starting salaries are on the higher end... I STILL don't see how they can move out of my house to start... like the generations before me. My kids are fortunate that I'll support them during those early years in their career. But, for millions of others kids... they will probably have a harder road than I did. And that's not how it should be.

It’s hard to live alone now, just about everyone I know NEEDS a roommate. Times have been harder and harder. Having to get very little groceries cause food is more expensive but yet shrinking in portion.

I hate it when companies cut their staff to save costs, which makes each remaining employee to do the job of 2 or 3 people! The types of jobs my mom used to work when she was young don’t even exist anymore. Volunteers actually do more now than what she did for a paying job. She’ll suggest something g to me while I’m looking up jobs, and I’m like, “Mom, that job doesn’t exist anymore! And if it did, it would make $7 an hour. lol”. All of that equates to the majority of employees in America being overworked and underpaid.

Here in Florida I have multiple workers every day coming in to scrap their possessions because they are leaving the state. Just cried with and hugged a mom with 2 jobs whose landlord upped her rent by $500 a month. She said her son asked her what changed because they used to be able to do fun things. She said she cried in the car and decided it's time to leave this state since there is no future here for workers. I completely agree! She is leaving Tuesday and already rented a better home for half the price in another state. This state is BROKEN!!!

Only reason i’m not homeless is because of my grandparents, They mean the world to me ❤️

Heads of these companies can afford to make less and pay their employees more. As a CEO i would feel horrible knowing I'm going home to a million dollar mansion and my employees are homeless, living out of cars, or can't put food on the table.

Amen ! YES, here's the thing I am 26, i have 2 kids and I live in Indiana and I'm struggling with the exact same thing I have Medicaid and food stamps and it is absolutely true. I make just under the allowed amount of income in a month. If I were to be just over the income limit, the amount that I make over does not make up for what I'd be losing in benefits, why is that??I have literally had to ask my jobs to decrease my hours shortly so that I could keep my benefits. The fact is the government benefits like food stamps, Medicaid, and WIC are not adjusting the income limits and guidelines to be realistic. Also there are so many things that aren't accounted for when applying for food stamps or Medicaid. Now with WIC there is a cap off at age 5, which i understand because kids are normally in school by age 5 and receive breakfast and lunch at school, but what about families that are still struggling and maybe home school.? These things need to be addressed!!

It broke my heart to hear that she only earns $1500 after working three jobs. Where I live getting housing for $1,500 is nearly impossible. 😔 Life is so hard sometimes. Said a prayer for these people. Prayed that the situation improves for everyone who is struggling. 🙏🏼🙏🏼

People need to quit saying you gotta appreciate it! No one should appreciate being treated like a peasant, you don't have to appreciate somebody giving you a job because they need workers that's called fair exchange. When someone does something genuine & good from the heart and it's truly all they can do that's when it should be appreciated but these corporations barely paying people but making billions and rich taking advantage of the poor disadvantages should not be appreciated because you can best believe anytime they do or offer help all they're doing is attempting to balance their dirty conscience, docs paying taxes and get a tax write off or get the publicity needed for that moment!

The owner of that printing company is full of crap. No business is going to voluntarily pay their workers more than the minimum of what they have to. So we must make them pay the workers more. Raise the minimum wage; then for him, raise the price of his t-shirts and let the chips fall where they may. If the market will bear the increase prices of the t-shirts then he'll be fine. If not, then he'll need to adjust further.

Imagine that there are obscenely rich people who care absolutely NOTHING about people struggling financially. In our country today there are many millions who live paycheck to paycheck, with no emergency fund whatsoever. And there are people with absolutely nothing in income. They are homeless and to some degree hopeless.

The printing guy started to talk and my brain started to hurt. We should not have to work ten thousand hour just to have a decent life. He started with no one help,he did this all alone.. despite having a 401k and the help of his wife. These are the type of people that tell you to pull yourself up by the bootstrap and overlooking all the other factors that may contribute to the state we are in. The best paying job I ever had required 8 hours, 5 days a week. I was not killing myself working 68hrs a week. Do you spend anytime with your kids and family? I saw right through his "AMAZING" story.

I felt her on the "It might get me that oil change I need" For the first time in my adult life I have enough money for a downpayment....but the cost of housing is not even worth it.

4 kids on a $1500 a month? People need to learn to use contraceptives...

Single mom, 4 kids.. I think we all see the issue.

As a single mom of 3 I know exactly what she means. Soons you makea few dollars over they snatch your assistance. So then when you have to buy ALL your food with cash, get no assistance with this high rent, and pay for health insurance you are LITERALLY worse off. So that $80 extra a week just cost you about $200-$300 a week. So it's like your hustling backwards. My mother and I decided it made more sense to just live together and so far so good!

Always talk to my mom about this, who was born in 1970. Her answer is always “work hard and you’ll be fine”. I just laugh cause all you have to do is open your eyes to see newer generations won’t have even close to what their parents did. Regardless if both adults work 2 jobs, the cost of everything else just goes up while your wage stays the same.

The sad part of this story is that 74 percent of Africa America women do not have a man in the household!

The thing is that there is BIG difference between the GROSS pay and one's actual take home pay, is what often dictates who gets help, and who doesn't.

Around 15/16 I remember being enraged bc my family was barely making it by month to month but that was enough for the govt to stop giving us food stamps. I realized why the cycle of poverty is so hard to break. We aren’t given the opportunity to actually build something bc the minute we make enough money to be justtt above scraping by, benefits get taken away and now we are even worse than where we started.

It's so sad that society is like this. How is congress stuck on mandating a living wage for everyone but can give themselves raises? This society is sick.

Every time that wage is raised, everything else get raised. Companies are not paying their employees we are and that's why they keep raising their prices!

How can people living below the poverty line afford to have four kids?

That single mom is doing a great job. She DESERVES more!! Greedy CEOs become millionaires off the blood, sweat and tears of their broken employees

A teacher in South Florida can't afford to rent a one-bedroom apartment, crazy, but true.

When companies will be held accountable for the too low salaries?

Most times it amazes me greatly how I moved from an average lifestyle to earning over $63k per month, Utter shock is the word. I have understood a lot in the past few years that there are lots of opportunities in the financial market. The only thing is to know where to invest.

You know, what we need to do is make these politicians work 40 hours a week on minimum wage and see if they can live on it

If corporate executives didn't pay themselves hundreds of millions of dollars a year, things may not be as high

The boss of a very profitable company bragging he pays 1 dolar above minimal wage and fighting agains every dolar increased by government on the same minimal wage is ridiculous and the example why the fight between the working class and owners will never stop. Also, making like it is pretty common to work 60 or 80h a week is just astonishing!

Single mum of 4? Says it all.

Been this way for at least 3 decades… glad we’re having this discussion 💯

Growing up I always heard that $100k a year meant you made it in life. Even in college 13 years ago, people bragged about it. Now, it's not much. Costs have skyrocketed and wages have stayed stagnant. The wage discrepancy between big corp execs and median employee incomes have grown ridiculously far apart!

English speaking world is feeling this Can, Oz, Brit having same.

Wages have been stagnant for decades. Meanwhile, corporations and CEOs have been raking in millions.

Cost of living is outrageous high in the USA and people have to work 2 full time or 3 part time jobs just to make ends meet. It is very sad and a disturbing trend.

The guy said "in the 1900s people were working 50 to 60 hours a week." And bread was a nickel 😂

People have a serious problem with birth control.

Loved the questions the reporter asked that boots strapped guy!

This is a very important issue right now all over the U.S. I’m a single adult and work overtime as a chef and still have to pick and choose the bills that get paid on time also. The struggle is and has been too real. There are more expenses then we used to have decades ago. Plus the inflation of rent cost to wages.

I had to retire early, 62, due to health reasons. I get around $1,100.00 a month and could not afford rent, utilities, car repairs, food or health insurance. I ended up living with my only child and her family who were struggling to make ends meet. Even with my added income we are still struggling. I had to sell my car because I could not afford the cost of constant repairs. My daughter, son-in-law and one grandchild all have health issues and take medications daily. Thankfully they have health insurance but the cost to have that insurance is very costly. Yes, I have Medicare now, but it does not cover things that I need, like new glasses (the ones I have are 8 years old) and I'm a diabetic and dentures (the ones I have are nearly 30 years old) I'm having to super glue them when the teeth fall out and the dentures break. People are all having it rough not only here in the USA but all over the world. My heart goes out to them. I'm thankful I have my family even though we are going through some very tough times.

A livable wage in this country is $65k, that's about $34 an hour, $15 an hour won't help when a one bedroom room apartment on average is $1700 a month. If corporations don't want to pay more, than the cost of living needs to be lowered. The working poor is a real issue that is not being addressed in this country.

What an incredible woman. Unfortunately the crisis is going to be much worse by the time her kids are adults and the same for my own children

Someone wanted me to run their entire business - literally do everything from accounting to IT to sales, etc for a measely $11 per hour… when I had been making 3 times as much in previous jobs. Employers are delusional! 😂😂😂