$100,000 Income Now Counts as Low Income in Some California Counties

A $100,000 annual income is now classified as low income in some California counties. The label comes from affordable-housing program thresholds set by the state Department of Housing and Community Development. It applies in high-cost places such as Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Santa Clara.

It is a bureaucratic category, not a poverty line. But it shows how far housing costs have outrun paychecks in parts of the state.

Restaurants feel it first

Southern California residents told Fox News Digital in a segment published Oct. 16 that housing, groceries, gas and dining out are forcing them to cut back. Some are rethinking bigger life milestones too. A San Diego restaurant owner in the same segment said diners are pulling back on eating out.

One restaurateur did not make it. Tom Sopit closed his restaurant after, in his telling, a combination of state, federal and municipal pressures. CNN senior national correspondent Kyung Lah told the story on Inside Politics.

Sopit was not trying to get rich, Lah said. "He was trying to break even for a solid year and could not do it. So he has to pull the eject button."

His parents, immigrants, ran a restaurant in Los Angeles. Their son could not do the same.

Structural costs, not just prices

Lah said California's problem goes beyond milk and gas, though its gas is the most expensive in the country. She listed insurance, daycare needed to hold a job, business fees, and regulations that restrict building.

"All of it is just crushing," she said.

She also said Democrats are looking at generations that cannot have what their parents had. That, she said, "is going to chase these candidates," and "frankly, it's going to chase Gov. Newsom as he seeks higher office."

That is Lah's assessment, not a polling result. It still comes from a CNN correspondent, not a partisan opponent.

Inflation is rising nationally too

California's pain sits on top of a national price spike. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that consumer prices rose 3.9% in September. The index averaged about 3.6% across July, August and September.

Inflation climbed again this year after the United States and Israel attacked Iran and Tehran tried to close the Strait of Hormuz. Crude oil has surged above $100 a barrel, and U.S. gasoline and diesel prices have stayed elevated.

The Social Security Administration announced on Oct. 14 a 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment for 2027. That is the largest in four years, since the 8.7% increase for 2023. It applies to roughly 76 million Social Security recipients and 7.3 million people on Supplemental Security Income.

The agency put the average increase at about $75 a month, starting in January 2027. The adjustment is calculated from the July-through-September inflation readings. It is the sixth straight year with an increase of at least 2.5%.

The same announcement raises the maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax from $184,500 to $192,300.

The ballot

California voters decide on Nov. 3. A proposed wealth tax is part of that election, according to the crypto-focused outlet Crypto Briefing. It says the cost-of-living pressure could shape public sentiment on the measure. It also says the gubernatorial candidates' positions and the campaigns on both sides will matter.

The sources here do not include polling on the measure or statements from its backers or opponents. They also do not show whether voters connect the $100,000 low-income threshold to the tax debate.

The next data point comes in under two weeks, when California voters weigh in.