Money
Black Friday: The Holiday Surge in U.S. Consumer Debt and Spending
Black Friday
Visualizing the surge in U.S. consumer debt and spending
The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.
Next week, Black Friday and Cyber Monday will kick off the start to the U.S. holiday shopping season, during which consumers are expected to spend a total of $655.8 billion this year.
With the average bill coming in at $938.50 for holiday spending, where are people finding the extra cash?
We looked back at the last five years of Equifax data to see how consumer debt correlates to holiday purchases.
There’s Credit In Store
One way consumers take advantage of Black Friday deals is through the issuance of store credit. Specifically, Black Friday traditionally sees a noteworthy surge in signups to private label cards – the kind redeemed at stores like Macy’s.
Each year, roughly half a million Americans are signing up for new accounts on Black Friday:
Private label cards issued | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Prior 10 days (Avg.) | 130,312 | 153,605 | 164,341 | 162,006 |
Black Friday | 463,292 | 485,512 | 502,805 | 491,873 |
Following 10 days (Avg.) | 167,144 | 181,454 | 182,320 | 181,903 |
Furniture and department stores are among the biggest providers of this type of credit to consumers. Here are the five-year averages by industry for the months of November and December:
New store credit issued (Nov/Dec) | $ millions |
---|---|
Furniture | 851 |
Department stores | 790 |
Jewelry | 451 |
Electronics | 365 |
Clothing | 241 |
Charge it, please
This bump in activity doesn’t stop with new signups for store credit. The average balances on store cards and credit cards both jump noticeably in the months following the holiday season:
Month | Store Card Balance (5-Year Average) | Credit Card Balance (5-year Average) |
---|---|---|
August | $291 | $1,717 |
September | $293 | $1,720 |
October | $296 | $1,709 |
November | $298 | $1,707 |
December | $313 | $1,742 |
January | $320 | $1,756 |
February | $308 | $1,710 |
Every year is different, but the data always follows the same trend.
Stocking up on Black Friday deals is not cheap, and extra dollars spent eventually make their way onto the credit card statement with the cost of interest added on.
Demographics
The Smallest Gender Wage Gaps in OECD Countries
Which OECD countries have the smallest gender wage gaps? We look at the 10 countries with gaps lower than the average.
The Smallest Gender Pay Gaps in OECD Countries
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
Among the 38 member countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), several have made significant strides in addressing income inequality between men and women.
In this graphic we’ve ranked the OECD countries with the 10 smallest gender pay gaps, using the latest data from the OECD for 2022.
The gender pay gap is calculated as the difference between median full-time earnings for men and women divided by the median full-time earnings of men.
Which Countries Have the Smallest Gender Pay Gaps?
Luxembourg’s gender pay gap is the lowest among OECD members at only 0.4%—well below the OECD average of 11.6%.
Rank | Country | Percentage Difference in Men's & Women's Full-time Earnings |
---|---|---|
1 | 🇱🇺 Luxembourg | 0.4% |
2 | 🇧🇪 Belgium | 1.1% |
3 | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | 1.4% |
4 | 🇨🇴 Colombia | 1.9% |
5 | 🇮🇪 Ireland | 2.0% |
6 | ðŸ‡ðŸ‡· Croatia | 3.2% |
7 | 🇮🇹 Italy | 3.3% |
8 | 🇳🇴 Norway | 4.5% |
9 | 🇩🇰 Denmark | 5.8% |
10 | 🇵🇹 Portugal | 6.1% |
OECD Average | 11.6% |
Notably, eight of the top 10 countries with the smallest gender pay gaps are located in Europe, as labor equality laws designed to target gender differences have begun to pay off.
The two other countries that made the list were Costa Rica (1.4%) and Colombia (1.9%), which came in third and fourth place, respectively.
How Did Luxembourg (Nearly) Eliminate its Gender Wage Gap?
Luxembourg’s virtually-non-existent gender wage gap in 2020 can be traced back to its diligent efforts to prioritize equal pay. Since 2016, firms that have not complied with the Labor Code’s equal pay laws have been subjected to penalizing fines ranging from €251 to €25,000.
Higher female education rates also contribute to the diminishing pay gap, with Luxembourg tied for first in the educational attainment rankings of the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index Report for 2023.
See More Graphics about Demographics and Money
While these 10 countries are well below the OECD’s average gender pay gap of 11.6%, many OECD member countries including the U.S. are significantly above the average. To see the full list of the top 10 OECD countries with the largest gender pay gaps, check out this visualization.
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