LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – According to the 2025 ALICE report, an update put out by the United Way on financial hardship in the state, a jaw-dropping 41% of Michigan households can’t afford basic necessities like food, housing, and childcare. That includes both those officially in poverty (14%) and another 27% who are technically “employed” but still can’t afford to live in the county where they work. That’s over 1.6 million households deciding between groceries or gas, heat or health insurance.
ALICE is an acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, and represents the growing number of families who are unable to afford the basics of housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, and technology. These workers often struggle to keep their own households from financial ruin, while keeping our local communities running.
The working poor don’t have it easy.
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Fourteen of Michigan’s 20 most common jobs paid less than $20 an hour in 2023. About half of the state’s cashiers, cooks, and care aides are living below the ALICE survival threshold. Meanwhile, the cost to simply exist as a family of four in Michigan clocks in at a cool $74,556 – a sum two full-time workers can’t usually hit.
Seniors, single parents, young adults and Blacks are struggling.
Michigan’s financial trainwreck isn’t just about wages – it’s also about who’s suffering. A majority of Black households (62%), single moms (75%), and seniors over 65 (51%) are all below the ALICE threshold. And young people? A full 65% of households headed by someone under 25 are already financially drowning.
Rent is still too high.
If you’re renting in Michigan and also broke, you’re not alone — 69% of rent-paying households below the ALICE line are spending 30% or more of their income on housing. And homeowners aren’t escaping either: half of those below the threshold are mortgage-burdened. For many, they aren’t building equity, they’re building stress instead.
The bottom line.
Despite the press releases touting job creation from Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan ranks 49th in the nation for employment according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics – a grim reality that doesn’t match the rhetoric. And for those who are working, many still aren’t earning enough to stay afloat as documented in the ALICE report.
Too many Michigan families are stuck living paycheck to paycheck, hoping the car holds up and no one in the house gets sick – because one emergency could push them over the edge.
