Mamdani Says ‘True Cost of Living’ in NYC Is $159,000 for Families

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a report on April 6 stating that about 5 million New Yorkers, or 62 percent of the city’s residents, do not earn enough to cover basic necessities and fully participate in the economy.

The figures came from his inaugural “True Cost of Living” report, which found an average resource gap of $39,603 for New York families. For the median family with children in New York City, the report said they needed about $159,000 in combined income per year.

“The True Cost of Living Measure offers an honest account of what it actually costs to live in this city, and who is being left behind. It shows that this is not a crisis affecting a small minority of New Yorkers,” Mamdani said in a statement.

According to the report, only couples without children make enough to meet their needs; the report calculated their expenses as $131,993, and median income as $133,089 per couple.

Mamdani’s office defined the true cost of living as “what families in New York City need to spend across at least eight cost categories to fully participate in the economy and save for the future and compares those costs against all available resources.”

The report was released by the Mayor’s Office of Equity & Racial Justice and came alongside a racial equity plan that focused on how different groups were adversely impacted by economic difficulties.

The mayor’s office called the widespread lack of financial security “a systemic feature of New York City’s economy rather than a reflection of individual circumstances.”

It also said the true cost of living included being able to save money, which it said was key to economic security and prosperity.

Judge Glock, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said the report found such a high number of people—5 million—to be in financial distress because it expanded the definitions of what is necessary for financial security.

He said that considering families who didn’t have an annual combined income of $159,000 as “in financial distress would be pretty shocking to a large number of people around the globe or even in America in 2026.” The most recent figure from the Social Security Administration’s National Average Wage Index from 2024 has the average annual income at $69,846, which is $139,692.

He said to suggest that such spending is necessary for economic security was subjective.

“There’s just no objective way to say ‘this is the right level of spending for a human being in 2026’ and ‘this is not,’” he said.

The report was based on data from the Urban Institute and included costs for housing, food, health care, child care, transportation, taxes, savings, and other necessities without government assistance or debt.

Following the death of George Floyd in May 2020 and the protests that followed, concerns for racial equity in New York City led to the passage in November 2022 of several racial justice ballot measures. One of those measures mandated measuring the true cost of living in New York City.

The report highlighted the disparities among ethnic groups and their ability to afford to live in New York. According to the report, as much as 78 percent of Hispanics cannot afford the standard of living established by the True Cost of Living report, whereas just 44 percent of white New Yorkers cannot afford this standard of life in New York. The report found that 66 percent of black New Yorkers and 63 percent of Asians and Pacific Islanders did not earn enough to cover the true cost of living in New York.

Even so, the city is in a poor position to address racial disparities with new programs or additional spending. The City of New York faces a major budget shortfall, with City Comptroller Mark Levine warning that city operating expenses for fiscal year 2026 are expected to exceed revenues by $4.5 billion–$6.3 billion.

Among the costs included in living in New York are taxes, which, at $18,000 for single adults, are more than double the cost gap for them to reach the standard published in the report. If they were not taxed, single adults would be able to meet the cost of living.

This is “kind of a shocking recognition on the part of this administration,” Glock said. “If we just took less money from people, then those individuals would have more than enough to live on, and even for the families with children, the taxes are eating up a substantial portion” of their means.