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Income Group Spending Habits on Gas
Comparison of spending behavior on gasoline by different income brackets
Primary Sources
Two grim realities are keeping the K-shaped economy alive - AOL.com
Inflation is disproportionately slamming lower-income workers, while the top of the income distribution has benefited from roaring stock prices.Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesNew research provides insights into what's been powering the US's K-shaped economy.Lower earners are affected more by inflation and gas prices.Many of them also don't get to benefit from the stock market, unlike higher earners.The prongs of the K-shaped economy are being propped up by two dreary economic realities: lower earners are getting hit harder by inflation, and left behind by blockbuster stock market gains.A new analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York looks at how the US economy slowly morphed into a K-shape where higher earners are thriving, or at least holding steady, and lower earners' economic fortunes are backsliding. It's a post-pandemic development, after a robust labor market and pandemic-era stimulus bolstered the economy's lowest earners. As inflation surges again and the stock market continues its roller coaster ride to the top, lower earners probably won't be working their way up the K anytime soon.Do you have a story to share about how rising costs are affecting you? Contact these reporters at jkaplan@insider.com and mhoff@insider.com.As lower earners started to see their wages grow at a higher rate in the wake of the pandemic, higher prices were lurking in the shadows, ready to take a bite out of those increases."We see that beginning in late 2022, low-income households consistently faced higher inflation than middle- and high-income households did," NY Federal Reserve researchers Rajashri Chakrabarti, Thu Pham, Beck Pierce, and Maxim L. Pinkovskiy, wrote. "Specifically, the lowest-income households have experienced inflation above the national average, restraining their spending."Oil shocks and disruptions to traffic through the Strait of Hormuz have erased recent progress on inflation, pushing it to its highest rate since May 2024 in March. Gas prices rose 18.9% year over year in March, the largest increase since August 2022.Lower earners tend to allocate more of their spending toward gas than the top; Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed 3.5% of spending was on gas in 2024 for the lowest 10% of consumer units by income, compared to 1.9% for the highest 10%.A report from the Bank of America Institute said "higher gasoline prices are stretching household budgets," but affecting lower-income households the most."Some consumers can cushion hi...
Inflation has hit a 3-year high, and gas prices are over $4 per gallon ...
17 hours ago ... And one of the primary, you know, concerns amongst voters is the affordability issue. We have been known to have a K-shaped economy, meaning that, you know, ...
Wall Street vs. Main Street: Understanding the Market-Economy Divide
20 hours ago ... Grocery bills, gasoline prices, insurance costs, and other recurring expenses ... This is where the idea of a K-shaped economy becomes especially relevant.
Two grim realities are keeping the K-shaped economy alive
The prongs of the K-shaped economy are being propped up by two dreary economic realities: lower earners are getting hit harder by inflation, and left behind ...
