The wall squeezing New Hampshire’s families is squeezing your business too.

New Hampshire has 566,004 households. One in three — 199,466 of them — earns above the federal poverty line but still can’t afford the basics where they live. United For ALICE calls them ALICE households: Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. Employed is the word that matters to you. These are the people who’d staff your business and shop in it. When their budget gets consumed by rent, childcare, and care for a family member, three things happen to you: you can’t find workers, your sales go soft, and your property tax bill climbs. Same wall, three bills — and all three land on your side.

Why can’t I find workers in New Hampshire?

Because the people who would take the job can’t afford to live near it, can’t find childcare to show up for it, or have been pulled out of the workforce entirely to care for someone at home. Nearly 3 in 4 New Hampshire business leaders say they can’t find the workers they need. That’s not a work-ethic problem. It’s a wall problem.

• The Drain — this one’s already yours. How can New Hampshire keep ranking “best for business” and still watch its workforce drain away — while 35% of its families keep getting subtracted from the customers you’re counting on? That’s the whole trap in one question, and it’s the crack that belongs to business. Read The Drain →
• Childcare that doesn’t exist. New Hampshire is short roughly 9,000 childcare slots, and that shortage costs NH businesses an estimated $35.6M–$55.5M every year in lost productivity and turnover. A parent who can’t find a slot can’t take — or keep — the job. Read The Vanishing Slot →NHFPI, Feb 2025
• Workers priced out of the state. 86% of NH business leaders name housing cost as their #1 barrier to hiring. A worker who can’t afford to live here either leaves — and you lose them — or commutes from so far that you lose them anyway. Read The Missing Rung →BIA, 2024
• Caregivers pulled off the line. When there’s no affordable care for a child, an aging parent, or a family member with a disability, someone in that household leaves work to provide it themselves. That someone was in your labor pool this morning. Read The Cost of Love →

Why are my sales soft when the economy looks fine?

Because the ruler that says New Hampshire is prosperous isn’t measuring the third of households whose entire budget is consumed by survival. They still buy groceries and gas — but the discretionary spending your business actually competes for is the first thing the gap erases. “Left over after the basics” is the entire local economy. For 199,466 New Hampshire households, there is no left over.

• Groceries or rent — never your counter. 1 in 6 New Hampshire children — 38,430 kids — were food insecure in 2024. A household choosing between food and the rent check has zero discretionary spend by definition. Read The Missing Meal →Feeding America, Map the Meal Gap
• The paycheck goes to the landlord. When housing eats an outsized share of income, the money that used to circulate through local businesses circulates through a mortgage servicer instead. Read The Missing Rung →
• A caregiver household stops spending. Cut a second earner to part-time to provide care and that household’s discretionary budget doesn’t shrink — it disappears. Read The Cost of Love →

Why does my property tax bill keep climbing?

Because New Hampshire funds its schools and local services off property tax more than any state in the country — and your commercial property pays the commercial rate on bills the state pushes downstream. Property taxes make up roughly 61% of all local government revenue in New Hampshire — the highest share of any state — and about 63% of all state and local tax revenue. New Hampshire ranks 48th in the nation for per-capita state aid to local governments. When the state doesn’t pay, the town does. When the town pays, you’re on the commercial rate.

• The scissor that cuts your bill. Roughly 83% of New Hampshire’s special-education costs land on the local share — carried on the property tax, at your commercial rate — because the state covers so little of it. It’s money out of your business before it can become payroll or reach a customer. Read The Scissor →NH School Funding Fairness Project, 2023–24

How do I add my business to the Allies?

Fill this in and you’re on the record. We confirm you’re a real New Hampshire business, then your name joins the wall. No cost, no newsletter obligation, no donation required — and your email is never published.

See the businesses standing with us →