mackmoan1988/TikTok
A nurse from Pennsylvania shared her financial struggles as a full-time working parent and broke down as she explained that she is living paycheck to paycheck despite earning good wages, in a viral TikTok video.
Mackenzie Moan, who goes by the handle @mackmoan1988 on TikTok and was interviewed by Fox Business, said she's a registered nurse and a full-time student with two children.
"I feel like my husband and I are doing everything right. We both have good jobs, I'm a nurse ... I work full-time, he works full-time," Moan said in the TikTok video while sobbing. The video was uploaded on November 14 and has amassed over 1.5 million views.
She explained that four days after she and her husband received their paychecks and had paid their bills, they were left with around $200 to $300 to spend over 10 days.
Moan emphasized that they live in a modest house with three bedrooms and a bathroom, and that both she and her partner make "good money" and "don't live above our means."
"Growing up we were told to get a degree, work to support your family … here we are," she said. "I don't know what less than paycheck to paycheck is. What is that? Poverty … as a registered nurse, with a husband, with a second income?"
"Somebody has to do something to change this," Moan said in an impassioned plea.
TikTok users are rallying in support of Moan and sharing similar struggles with one comment saying: "I promise it's not just you. It's all of America."
Another user wrote: "I make 6 figures and am STILL paycheck to paycheck! … I don't live beyond my means either. It is so depressing!"
Business Insider reached out to Moan for comment via TikTok but did not immediately hear back outside of regular working hours.
Moan's video reflects the struggle of many US workers.
Although wages finally caught up with inflation in May this year, the gap between buying power and inflation remains.
"Households are seeing their finances stretched thinly by the combination of high prices for goods and services as well as high interest rates," Brett House, an economics professor at Columbia Business School, previously told CNBC.
"Many are having to make tough choices to defer discretionary spending in order to stay on top of their loan payments and the costs of necessities," he said.
