The latest inflation reading across the country is nearly 8 percent year-over-year—and this is appearing to have sizable financial consequences for millions of American workers.

According to a new survey released by Salary Finance, more than 75 percent of working Americans said that current inflationary pressures have negatively impacted their finances over the past twelve months.

In fact, about 20 percent of workers have admitted that they regularly run out of cash between paychecks—a figure that is up from 15 percent last year.  

“As a result, about one-quarter of those polled said it’s harder to afford necessary expenses and one-third are unable to build savings, issues that are particularly problematic for low-to-moderate-income workers,” CNBC wrote.

More Pressure on Low-Income Families

The data also point to low-income households bearing the brunt of higher costs.

“Low earners funnel a bigger share of their budgets to transportation costs and other staples, like food and energy, relative to wealthier households,” it added.

“Further, people with $50,000 or less in annual income already have thinner margins between the money they take home and what they spend,” it continued, citing information from Kayla Bruun, an economic analyst at Morning Consult.

Meanwhile, an analysis conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School seems to support the findings.

“Higher-income households saw their earnings rise by more than their cost of living, while the lowest-income households (below $20,000) saw their earnings rise by only one third of their increase in cost of living,” the researchers wrote.

An Extra $433 Per Month

Per Business Insider, Bloomberg economists recently suggested that current inflationary trends will likely “last throughout the year” and “will leave the average U.S. household spending $5,200 more compared to the year prior.”

Broken down further, that comes out to an extra $433 per month—an amount that many American families are increasingly having a difficult time coming up with.

“Accelerated depletion of savings will increase the urgency for those staying on the sidelines to join the labor force, and the resulting increase in labor supply will likely dampen wage growth,” the economists said.

These grim findings come on the heels of a separate report released by Oxfam America, which discovered that roughly 32 percent of American workers—52 million—are trying to make ends meet on less than $15 an hour.

The report’s author Kaitlyn Henderson, per Business Insider, claimed that the low wages are “just not livable.” She added that the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since July 2009 and that $15 should be a “starting point” for such wages.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Washington state-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.

Image: Reuters.