Editor’s note: The name of the hotel worker in this story has been changed to protect her privacy. The Florence News Journal confirmed her identity and employment, but is withholding identifying details because she discussed personal financial hardship and feared possible workplace consequences.
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina – Inflation did not arrive in South Carolina as one bill. It came as everything at once: gas that made the commute feel more expensive, groceries that shrank the cart, electricity bills that turned summer heat into a monthly threat, rent renewals that erased raises before families could feel them.
Prices did not just rise; they stacked. For thousands of working households, the problem is not laziness or bad budgeting. It is that the basics now cost more than full-time work often pays.
Keisha Grant knows that arithmetic by heart.
She works the front desk at a hotel near Myrtle Beach, where she smiles at visitors who tell her how affordable South Carolina feels compared with the places they left. She nods because it is part of the job. Then she drives home to an apartment she shares with her sister, checks the power bill, and decides whether to buy groceries before or after payday.
“I’m happy people enjoy it here,” Keisha said. “But I wish they could see what it costs the people serving the breakfast, cleaning the rooms and ringing up the groceries.”
That is the hidden economy beneath South Carolina’s growth story. The state is adding people, homes, hotels, warehouses, restaurants and medical offices. But many workers in tourism, retail, food service, caregiving and other low-wage sectors remain one emergency away from falling behind.
United For ALICE reported that in 2024, 910,499 South Carolina households were below the ALICE Threshold, meaning they were either in poverty or earned above poverty but still could not afford basic costs. That was 41% of all households. The total included 302,424 households in poverty and 608,075 ALICE households.
ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. It describes families who work, often full time, but do not earn enough for housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, technology and taxes.
“It means you’re not broke enough for some help,” Keisha said, “but not stable enough to breathe.”
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Work is not always enough
South Carolina’s median income was $69,324 from 2020 to 2024. But the median does not describe the worker making beds, stocking shelves, preparing meals, helping older patients bathe or watching children.
The State of Working South Carolina report found that one in five workers earned less than $15 an hour and that retail salespersons earned a median wage of $13.89 an hour, or about $28,900 a year. The same report noted that a hotel desk clerk earned about $28,610 a year, while the estimated cost for modest economic security for a single adult in Myrtle Beach was $46,117.
That gap is where the crisis lives. Keisha works full time most weeks. In tourist season, she sometimes picks up extra shifts. But extra work brings extra costs: more gas, more child care help, more takeout when she gets home too late to cook.
“People say, ‘Get more hours,’” she said. “I do. Then life charges me for those hours too.”
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The basics are outpacing the paycheck
United For ALICE calculated that the 2024 Household Survival Budget in South Carolina was $31,584 for a single adult and $76,908 for a family of four with two young children in child care. Those are survival numbers, not comfort numbers.
The Bipartisan Policy Center estimated the average annual cost of child care for one South Carolina child under 5 at $9,089. Zillow listed average statewide rent at $1,849, per latest report. Bankrate estimated average South Carolina homeowners insurance at $2,611 a year for $300,000 in dwelling coverage.
For a household with children, a car payment, rent and no savings, one of those costs can decide the month. Keisha’s most recent emergency came as a tire. Not an eviction. Not a hospital stay. Not a job loss. Just one tire that could not wait. She paid for it with a credit card, then paid the minimum, then watched interest become another bill.
“That tire is still following me weeks later,” she said.
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Rural hardship narrows the options
Financial fragility looks different across the state. In Myrtle Beach and Charleston, workers may be surrounded by jobs but priced out by housing. In Greenville, warehouse, service and health care jobs may be plentiful, but rent, transportation and child care still eat wages. In rural counties, the problem can be fewer high-quality jobs, longer drives, limited child care, thinner health care access and fewer backup options.
Older ALICE county snapshots showed deep hardship in places such as Clarendon County, where 52% of households were below the ALICE Threshold, and Lee County, where the share was 65%. Those figures help explain why poverty in South Carolina is not only an urban issue or a coastal issue. It is a geography issue.
A low-wage worker in a rural county may face cheaper rent than someone in Charleston, but also fewer employers, fewer buses, fewer clinics and longer distances to everything. A broken car can become a lost job. A missed shift can become a missed rent payment.
Keisha’s cousin lives in the Pee Dee and drives nearly 40 minutes to a warehouse job. When his truck broke down last year, he borrowed rides for two weeks and slept on a friend’s couch closer to work.
“He was employed the whole time,” Keisha said. “That’s what people miss. He had a job and still almost lost everything.”
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Public policy meets the kitchen table
Financial insecurity is often discussed through programs: workforce development, tax credits, housing policy, Medicaid, child care subsidies, transportation, food assistance and wage growth. Families experience those policies as availability or absence.
South Carolina has attracted major employers and celebrated low unemployment. But employment alone does not guarantee stability if the jobs growing fastest do not pay enough to cover the cost of living.
The ALICE Essentials Index shows why many households feel worse even when inflation headlines cool. It found the cost of basic necessities rose faster than overall CPI over time, and especially after the pandemic. Families do not live on the average inflation rate. They live on rent, food, transportation, child care and health care.
That difference matters because workers like Keisha are not asking for luxury. They are asking for margin: a small savings account, a repair that does not become debt, a child care bill that does not cancel a paycheck, a medical visit before the emergency room, a rent payment that does not require choosing cheaper food.
One emergency away
The phrase “one emergency away” can sound dramatic until the emergency arrives.
For Keisha, it was a tire. For her sister, it was a dental infection. For her neighbor, it was a week of missed hours after a child got sick. For a coworker, it was a rent increase that made moving cheaper than staying, even though moving meant deposits, fees and a longer commute.
That is the instability behind the numbers. Hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians are not outside the economy. They are inside it, working jobs that keep tourism, retail, health care, restaurants, schools and households running. But they are doing it without enough cushion to absorb normal life.
Late last month, Keisha had $62 left after bills. Payday was four days away. The car had gas. The fridge had food. Nothing was broken. And that was more than enough for her. She was happy.
“That’s what a good week looks like now,” she said. “Nothing happened.”
