Wu-tang said it best: cash rules everything around us. And for some, the right amount of money would completely shift their lives. But how much would it take?
A new report by CouponFollow says it’s probably less than you think.
According to survey findings, Americans say a raise of at least $5,780, on average, would notably improve their life. Coupon Finder gleaned this information from the responses of 1,151 US participants that work full time. This was broken out as 534 men, and 617 were women between the ages of 18–60 years old.
Unsurprisingly, it was found that gender really played into how much money would make a difference in the respondents lives. Women reported they would see significant life improvement with about $1,600 less than men. This was interesting since women are often lagging behind men in average earnings due to the gender wage gap. This may be explained because although women request pay raises almost at the same rate as men, they’re not entirely confident they’ll receive what they’re asking because they’re denied more often.
The report also examined what would happen if people experienced some income loss and how deeply they would be impacted.
29% of people could afford their expenses for 3 months or less if they lost 10% of their income. In fact, a majority of respondents say their lives would worsen with a pay cut of just $1,000. If they received a raise, most Americans would buy more essentials- specifically groceries.
With inflation deeply affecting most of our daily decisions, this study revealed some eyebrow raising insights. For some respondents, they even said their health would be deeply affected if they saw a shift up in income.
39% of Americans reported that their mental health would improve with a raise of any amount.. Among younger respondents, the amount increased to 55%. As the report points out, this is incredibly insightful since there’s been a significant uptick in mental health issues among Americans in the last three years, particularly among Gen Z.