Debt payments are eating up more of workers’ income gains: Report

New research shows that debt payments are eating up more of workers income gains. An analysis by the Century Foundation and Protect Borrowers estimates real take-home household income associated with a typical worker rose $19 a month since late 2022. Meanwhile, that worker's monthly debt payments rose $57. That means 52 cents of every dollar a worker gained in monthly take-home pay went to paying their debt. The report finds inflationadjusted debt payments have grown eight times faster than household income over a three-year period, rising nearly 15% compared to less than 2% growth in income. >> Increasingly, we're seeing people take on, you know, things like credit card debt um just to meet their basic expenses. And so this sort of shows a trend of people um using that credit card is like, you know, exactly what it is, like credit to sort of get by um for month to month because their paychecks aren't covering it. >> And there's another warning sign. Experts say the Federal Reserve's latest survey of consumer finances shows the share of families spending more than 40% of their income on debt payments reached 8.6% in 2025. That's up from 6.5% in 2022 and that's the highest level in 12 years. So, while consumer spending has remained resilient, some economists and policy analysts say rising debt payments raise questions about how much longer households can keep spending at this pace.