The Johnson Family Household Profile: Working Hard but Still Struggling

Sarah and Sam Johnson are a hardworking Ohio couple struggling to make ends meet despite the fact that they both work in stable, full-time jobs, and several part-time ones. (Names and details have been changed to protect the participants.) They own a home and two cars in a working-class neighborhood in a small town near Cincinnati, and they have retirement savings through their work. They support their daughter, Amy, 8, and two grown children from prior marriages; Mathew, 20, who is a full-time student living with them and Anne, also 20, who lives with them part-time and soon plans to move. They regularly spend money on clothes and entertainment, as well as on celebrations when their children have big life events.

Read about Sarah and Sam Johnson in the full case study.