New Yorkers Can’t Afford A $100 Surprise Expense, Barely Getting By, Small Business Owners Cut Their Own Salaries To Stay In Business
Editor’s note: We’ve covered affordability before, including a recent Senate hearing where Republicans discussed the benefits to the working class while the witnesses described a very different picture for that same middle but also lower classes: increased costs for basic necessities, loss of health insurance and food assistance, and homeownership more and more out of reach as private equity enters more heavily into the single family home market.
New study out from New Yorkers for Local Businesses: 54% of New York adults under 65 say they’re just getting by or worse, and 18% couldn’t cover a surprise $100 expense. Small business owners are absorbing the worst of it — two-thirds have three months or less of cash runway, and 43% skipped or cut their own pay in the past year.
Here are some more details from the study:
More Than Half of New York Adults Under 65 Are Just Getting By or Worse, and Three in Four Have Cut Their Spending as Prices Rise
Small business owners are squeezed hardest on cash: two thirds have three months or less of runway, and more than four in ten have cut their own pay
Below are several quotes from within the study text itself:
54% of New York adults ages 18–64 describe themselves as “just getting byˮ (35%) or “finding it difficult to get byˮ (19%); 34% say they are “doing okay,ˮ and 12% are “living comfortably.ˮ
58% say they had trouble paying regular bills, such as rent or utilities, on time at least occasionally over the past year, including 18% who had trouble most months.
76% report spending less overall in the past year because prices have gone up.
18% could not cover an unexpected $100 expense right now, and fewer than half (48%) would cover it with cash, savings, or a card paid off in full. The divide here is income, not age: 34% of households under $25,000 could not cover the expense, compared with 4% at $150,000 or more, a 30-point gap.
43% of New York small business owners (self-employed residents; see definition) skipped, delayed, or lowered their own pay in the past year (28% multiple times), and a further 23% pay themselves no regular salary. 54% had trouble paying the businessʼs main bills at least once in the past three months, and two-thirds (66%) could cover main expenses for three months or less if revenue stopped.
50% vs. 59% Residents of the New York side of the Newark/NYC metro are less likely to be financially strained than those in the rest of the state (50% vs. 59%), and less likely to be unable to cover a $100 expense (15% vs. 23%); both differences exceed the surveysʼ combined modeled intervals. In contrast, Rochesterʼs rates of financial strain and spending cutbacks are statistically similar to the statewide figures, but the area has fewer reports of routine bill-payment issues.
Residents Under Strain
Strain is the norm, and prices are changing behavior. Asked to describe their finances today, 19% of New York adults ages 18–64 say they are finding it difficult to get by, and 35% say they are just getting by, a combined 54%.
Another 34% say they are doing okay, and 12% say they are living comfortably.
A majority (58%) also had trouble paying regular bills such as rent or utilities on time at least occasionally over the past year, including 18% who had trouble most months.
Prices are changing behavior as well:
76% report spending less overall in the past year because prices went up, and 78% took at least one action in the past three months to cover expenses. The most common actions were reducing how much they save (31%), using credit cards more than usual (28%), and dipping into savings (19%). (Respondents selected a single action; see Data Quality Notes.)
54% just getting by or finding it difficult to get by
58% had trouble paying regular bills on time at least occasionally
76% spent less in the past year because prices went up
How New Yorkers describe their finances today
Finding it difficult to get by 19%
Just getting by 35%
Doing okay 34%
Living comfortably 12%
Source: Pollfish survey of 1,200 New York adults ages 18–64, June 29–30, 2026. Weighted estimates.
Resilience to a $100 Shock
The ability to absorb even a small shock is limited. Fewer than half (48%) would cover an unexpected $100 expense with cash, savings, or a card paid off in full; 22% would put it on a credit card and pay it off over time, 12% would borrow or sell something, and 18% could not cover it right now.
18% could not cover an unexpected $100 expense right now
How New Yorkers would cover an unexpected $100 expense
Cash, savings, or card paid off in full 48%
Credit card, paid over time 22%
Borrow or sell something 12%
Could not cover it right now 18%
Actions taken in the past three months to cover expenses
Reduced how much they save 31%
Used credit cards more than usual 28%
Dipped into savings 19%
Took no action 22%
The Income Divide
Income divides the state far more than age. Every measure of strain is far higher at the bottom of the income distribution than at the top, and the gaps are many times the surveyʼs intervals:
The two lowest income bands are statistically tied at the top of the strain measures. From $50,000 upward, every measure falls steadily; the gap in the share unable to absorb a $100 shock reaches 30 points (34% under $25,000 vs. 4% at $150,000 or more), and the gaps in overall strain exceed 35 points. Age matters far less. The share reporting any bill trouble declines from about 63% among adults under 35 to 48% among those 55–64, and at least two-thirds of every age band say they cut spending because of prices.
Small Business Cash
Runway
Cash is thin, and owners absorb the strain. NYLBʼs companion survey reached 413 New York small business owners, defined in this report as self-employed residents ages 18–64 (260 self-employed full-time, 153 part-time). Business ownership, firm size, and employer status were not independently verified.
66% could cover main expenses for three months or less if revenue stopped
54% had trouble paying the businessʼs main bills in the past three months
17% report more than six months of coverage
If revenue stopped today, main expenses could be covered for…
Less than one month 33%
One to three months 33%
Three to six months 17%
More than six months 17%
Source: Pollfish survey of 413 self-employed New York residents ages 18–64, June 29–July 6, 2026. Weighted estimates.
Owners Absorbing the Strain
Much of the pressure lands on owners themselves. In the past year, 43% skipped, delayed, or lowered their own pay at least once to keep the business going (28% multiple times), and a further 23% do not pay themselves a regular salary at all; about a third (34%) kept their pay untouched.
Household finances are exposed too: 39% used personal savings to keep the business going, 32% used a personal credit card, 27% borrowed from family or friends, 18% fell behind on a personal bill, and 14% took on personal debt.
43% skipped, delayed, or lowered their own pay in the past year
23% pay themselves no regular salary at all
Personal resources used to keep the business going in the past year
Used personal savings 39%
Used a personal credit card 32%
Borrowed from family or friends 27%
Fell behind on a personal bill 18%
Took on personal debt 14%
Multi-select question. Source: Pollfish survey of 413 self-employed New York residents ages 18–64, June 29–July 6, 2026. Weighted estimates.
Operational Responses
On the operations side, owners turned to prices and their own paychecks before their workforce: 29% raised prices, 27% cut their own hours or pay, and 26% delayed or canceled an investment. Workforce measures were rare: 14% froze hiring, 5% laid off staff, and 4% cut employee pay or benefits (figures computed across all respondents, including owners with no employees).
Full-time self-employed owners are substantially more likely than part-timers to have raised prices (34% vs. 21%), a difference outside the combined intervals; their higher rate of repeated pay cuts (31% vs. 22%) is suggestive but within the combined intervals.
Steps taken in response to financial pressure
Raised prices 29%
Cut their own hours or pay 27%
Delayed or canceled an investment 26%
Froze hiring 14%
Laid off staff 5%
Cut employee pay or benefits 4%
Workforce figures computed across all respondents, including owners with no employees. Source: Pollfish survey of 413 self-employed New York residents ages 18–64, June 29–July 6, 2026. Weighted estimates.
34% of full-time owners raised prices
21% of part-time owners raised prices
Spotlight: The Newark/NYC Metro Area
New Yorkʼs share of the Newark/NYC metropolitan area (formally, the New York portion of the New York–Newark–Jersey City, NY-NJ metropolitan statistical area) is home to about six in ten of the statewide surveyʼs respondents. Figures in this section come from that subset: 725 respondents, with a modeled interval of roughly ±4 points. The rest-of-state comparison group is the statewide surveyʼs remaining 475 respondents (about ±5 points).
The metro/rest-of-state contrast is the reportʼs clearest geographic finding, and it points the opposite way from what cost of living alone would predict. Metro-area New Yorkers are less likely to be financially strained than residents of the rest of the state (50% vs. 59% just getting by or worse) and less likely to be unable to cover an unexpected $100 expense (15% vs. 23%). Both gaps exceed the combined intervals.
Just getting by or worse 50 59
Could not cover a $100 expense 15 23
Any bill trouble 59 56
Cut spending because of prices 76 75
Source: Pollfish survey of 1,200 New York adults ages 18–64, June 29–30, 2026 (metro-area subset, n=725; rest of state, n=475). Weighted estimates. Bold rows exceed combined credibility intervals. Replication figures from a Pollfish survey of 1,200 adults ages 18–64 in the New York–Newark–Jersey City metro area, June 29–30, 2026.
Data Quality Notes
Every figure in this report was independently tabulated from the respondent-level survey data. AI-generated summary documents supplied by the survey platform were reviewed as part of the audit, but are not the source of any figure herein. Errors identified in those documents, including subgroup statistics computed on inconsistent bases (shares of answers versus shares of respondents, which understated several multi-select figures by 8 to 23 points) and claims resting on cells as small as three respondents, were corrected or excluded in the course of this analysis.
See the full study as a pdf file here including methodology, respondents, limitations, and more data, such as that particular to Rochester, New York. We included New York City above.
Banner Image: Barista at a coffee shop. Image Credit – Patrick Tomasso
New Yorkers for Local Business
NYLB is a statewide coalition of small business owners, workers, and advocates who believe New York can be a better place to work, invest, and grow. Our goal is to elevate the voices of local businesses in Albany, pushing back against policies that raise costs, threaten jobs, or discourage investment.
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