The middle class is paring back on holiday gifts this year, reflecting a widening inflation-fueled spending gap between the country’s wealthiest and everyone else.
Americans with annual household incomes of $40,000 to $100,000 say they expect to spend 20 percent less on holiday gifts than they did last year, Gallup data shows, even as average household spending is expected to rise. Higher-income families, by comparison, plan to spend an all-time high of $1,578 on gifts, a 6 percent increase from last year.
