The money is gone before Norma Reyes makes it, and that is a fact of her life in California. Reyes does the math every month, a high-wire act of balancing her finances and leaning on others to get from one paycheck to the next.

For Reyes, who works in airline food service in Los Angeles, every choice is a considered one. The 51-year-old spends only on her needs, not her wants, but her bills still soar out of sight long before the next pay period arrives. Lately, she has fallen into a cycle of borrowing from friends until payday, then using most of her check to repay them.
 

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“It has been difficult,” Reyes, a native of Mexico who came to Los Angeles as a young woman in 1990, said through an interpreter. “I am a resilient person, but sometimes it is very frustrating.”

The numbers bear out her situation. A full-time employee, Reyes makes $18.04 per hour, or about $720 a week before taxes. She pays $1,500 a month — well below market value — for an apartment in Hawthorne; $250 for utilities and internet; and $250 for gas and repairs on the 21-year-old car she cannot afford to replace. Food and clothing are a few hundred more.

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