US Workers Keep Just $70 of 38% Pay Gain Since 2019 as Inflation Eats 80%

Q: Why did a historic 38 percent pay raise leave the average worker with just 70 extra dollars a week in 2026?

Because prices rose almost as fast as pay. The typical full-time worker’s weekly wage climbed from about $908 in 2019 to roughly $1,250 in early 2026, a 38% increase. But consumer prices rose about 30% over the same period, so most of that bigger paycheck was needed just to buy the same goods and services. That is why the apparent $342 weekly raise translated into only about $70 more in inflation-adjusted buying power. In real terms, the gain was about 5.9% over seven years, or less than 1% a year. CBS found roughly 80% of the nominal raise was absorbed by higher living costs. The timing matters. Wage growth was unusually strong after the pandemic, but the 2021–2023 inflation surge sharply reduced its impact. Inflation peaked at 9% year over year in June 2022, the fastest pace since 1981. Even though inflation later cooled and wages recently have slightly outpaced prices, the earlier spike had already eroded much of the cumulative gain. Households also tend to feel the squeeze more because essential costs rose heavily. Food inflation, for example, surged in 2022 and remains elevated in some categories in 2026, with restaurant prices still rising faster than groceries and items such as beef and fresh vegetables posting notable increases. The average also hides wide differences. Lower-paid workers generally made the strongest real gains, while some occupations, including teachers and letter carriers, lost purchasing power despite higher nominal pay.

3 articles · Updated · CBS New York · Aug 7

$1,250 a week is what the typical full-time US worker earned in early 2026, up $342 from 2019, but only about $70 more remains after adjusting for inflation.
30% consumer-price growth over the same seven years absorbed roughly 80% of that raise, helping explain why bigger paychecks under Trump, Biden and Trump again often failed to ease household budgets.
5.9% is the typical worker's real pay gain since 2019, but the gains were uneven: about half of workers beat inflation, a quarter roughly matched it and a quarter fell behind.
9.4% real gains went to the lowest-paid tenth of workers, versus 2.6% for the top quarter; police officers gained nearly 10% after inflation while nurses barely advanced, and teachers and letter carriers lost buying power.
5.9% still ranks as one of the stronger seven-year real wage stretches since 1979, compared with a 3.6% decline in the decade after 1979 and just 0.3% growth in the 1990s.