More than 1-in-3 Alaska households are struggling to afford the basics
Anchorage Daily News covered our Sept. 28, 2026, launch of ALICE in Alaska: A Study of Financial Hardship. This report offers the most comprehensive depiction to date of people who are Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE) in our state, truly demonstrating the financial hardships that many Alaskans are facing.
Financial Hardship
"Life is really expensive right now,” said Mike Jones, a University of Alaska Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research professor of applied economics and co-presenter at The Chamber event. Our ALICE in Alaska report shows that an Alaska family of four with two children enrolled in childcare must pay $98,364 to meet their basic needs--even though the federal poverty level for that same family is calculated at just $39,000.
Insufficient Funds
During The Chamber presentation, our President and CEO Eric Utraq Billingsley noted that these ALICE Alaska families "are earning money or have income coming in but are below the cost of basic goods." He referenced childcare workers as an example of employed people who, on average in our state's communities, do not make enough money to cover the essentials. Forty-nine percent of them are below the ALICE threshold.
Economic Precarity
"The data in the Alaska report captures economic trends from 2010 to 2024, the last year many of the numbers were available. They miss emerging economic precarity from recent federal actions like tariff policies, the energy crunch resulting from the Iran war, and large technology firms pushing American stock indexes to new heights," reports ADN. With your help, United Way can tackle the challenges impacting ALICE Alaska households, create solutions that address their needs, and take steps to ensure every Alaskan has opportunities to thrive.