NJ Working Families Can’t Keep Up With Skyrocketing Inflation, Report Finds

It’s not your imagination: life is getting more expensive in New Jersey. And as usual, the most vulnerable households are the first to suffer when inflation starts to soar – even when they work full-time, advocates say.

The United Way of Northern New Jersey recently released its 2026 Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE) report. View the full study and learn about its methodology here.

The annual report tracks the costs of six basics families need to live and work: housing, child care, food, transportation, health care and technology.

Costs are skyrocketing, researchers found.

The price of household necessities in the Garden State rose faster than inflation for more than 15 years. Between 2007 and 2024, the ALICE essentials index for New Jersey increased nearly 70 percent, as compared with 52 percent for the broader Consumer Price Index.

For financially struggling families, it’s not a matter of making one less trip to Starbucks or putting off the purchase of a new phone. Many of them are being forced to decide between groceries, utilities, child care or rent: an impossible choice, advocates say.

New Jersey’s ALICE families are hit especially hard when prices start rising – and there are a lot of them, the United Way says:

“With income above the federal poverty level but unable to afford basic expenses, 1.05 million New Jersey households were ALICE in 2024. When combined with households in poverty, 39 percent of all households in New Jersey fell below the ALICE threshold of financial survival.”

Many ALICE families in New Jersey are working full-time, but their jobs simply don’t pay enough to keep their heads above water, researchers said.

In 2024, a family of four in New Jersey needed $115,872 just to cover the essentials: nearly four times the federal poverty level of $31,200. But even with both parents working full-time in two of the state’s most common jobs – cooks and tellers – a sample family’s combined income still fell short by $35,667.

“The ALICE research shows that the affordability crisis is not new,” said Stephanie Hoopes, national director at United For ALICE, the research arm of the nonprofit.

“Already stretched thin, ALICE families have no cushion for rising gas or utility costs, forcing tough tradeoffs with other necessities,” Hoopes said.

Other highlights from this year’s report included:

• New Jersey ranked 26th in financial hardship among all 50 states and the District of Columbia, placing it near the national midpoint. Yet nearly 2 in 5 households still struggled to afford basic necessities.

• ALICE households were found in every major industry statewide, with high levels of hardship in accommodation and food services (40%), transportation and warehousing (36%) and construction (30%).

• Poverty rates in New Jersey have remained relatively flat since 2010, while the number of ALICE households has steadily increased.

• Minimum-wage workers in New Jersey saw hourly pay rise to $15.13, up from $14.13 in 2023. Yet for one full-time adult worker with one school-age child, that wage still was not enough to support the ALICE Household Survival Budget, the minimum cost of basics, in any county across New Jersey.

This year’s report got a boost from former NFL players Tiki and Rondé Barber, who said they were raised in an ALICE family by a single mother: a “grinding individual” working multiple jobs to make ends meet.

There were always tough decisions about what the household could spend money on – and what they couldn’t.

The United Way also saw support for this year’s ALICE report from New Jersey Sen. Teresa Ruiz (NJ-29), who spoke about the need to reach these working families in an #ActForALICE video.

“Often times when we're creating policy, we're going 200 percent above poverty level… 300 percent above poverty level – but we're still not reaching that working family that's in the ALICE data point,” Ruiz said.

• Related: NJ Lawmakers Battle To Raise Federal Minimum Wage
• Related: NJ Women Earn Half As Much In These Fields, Data Shows
• Related: NJ Child Care Gap Costs Businesses $2 Billion Every Year, Study Finds

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