Luz Pagan, 45, has been working as a part-time cashier at a discount store in downtown Chicago for nearly three years, her requests to become a full-time employee with benefits having gone nowhere.

The single mom and her 12-year-old son, Marvin, have been living in a $575-a-month studio apartment on the North Side since November. But with a work schedule averaging 15 to 20 hours a week, in a job paying about $8.75 an hour, Pagan is struggling to cover living expenses and has to scrape together money from friends and family. Her last paycheck netted $64.

"I'm underemployed," said Pagan, who previously lived in a shelter for two months. She has an associate's degree and would love an office job. Marvin's dad helps with expenses, but she said she and her son — a mostly A and B student who wants to be a doctor — are living paycheck to paycheck, with no savings.

Pagan's plight is becoming more commonplace.

Nationwide, 27 percent of households are "asset poor," meaning they don't have enough money tucked away to cover basic expenses for three months in case of a layoff or other emergency that saps income, according to a study to be released Tuesday by the Washington-based Corporation for Enterprise Development. The nonprofit's mission is helping poor families and communities.

Since the nonprofit's 2009-10 survey, the number of asset-poor families has jumped to a little more than 1 in 4 from 1 in 5. Strip out a home, a business or a car — none of which can easily be converted to cash — and the measure of households who are "liquid asset poor" jumps to 43 percent.

In Illinois, 26.4 percent of households are asset poor and 39.8 percent are liquid asset poor.

If that weren't enough bad news for the working poor and for households barely getting by, the Consumer Federation of America on Monday released a report suggesting that the poorer the person is, the more she or he will pay for things like car insurance. Specifically, the report said, many low- and moderate-income drivers pay higher prices for automotive coverage even if they have spotless driving records and drive few miles.

Among the report's statistics: A single man, 30, driving since age 16, owning a Ford Taurus, having a perfect driving record and commuting round trip 20 miles a day might pay $558 a year for insurance if he had a Master of Business Administration and lived in an affluent St. Louis suburb. If he were only a high school graduate, his rate rises by $71. If he were to become unemployed, his cost climbs another $84. If he moves to a poorer area, his rates rise by $347.

"None are directly related to driving," but rather suggest a correlation with income, a Consumer Federation official said during a Monday conference call to discuss the results.

Pagan, who doesn't own a car, said she has begun working with Chicago-based Heartland Alliance — a nonprofit seeking to reduce poverty — to look for housing and secure full-time employment.

She doesn't have a credit card but has a debit card through a TCF Bank checking account that she has had for about six months. She previously banked with a megabank but switched when it curtailed its free checking options. Pagan, who has been on food stamps and who earned about $7,000 last year, said it has been about five years since she had to use payday lenders.