As inflation rises, especially for groceries, North Carolinians have seen their buying power diminish. | Hanson Lu/Unsplash
As inflation rises, especially for groceries, North Carolinians have seen their buying power diminish. | Hanson Lu/Unsplash
With a -3.4% wage inflation for August 2022, North Carolina's average household income has seen a $2,847 year-over-year loss, bringing the state's current average household income down to $80,879 a year from $83,726; a Zippia report said.
The inflation rate for the month of August 2022 was announced Tuesday as 8.3%. Although that rate is marginally less than July’s numbers, the country is not yet in the clear when it comes to financial struggles. Necessity prices continued on their upward trend, dissolving any salary increases one might have received this year.
"Average hourly pay in America **adjusted for inflation** is -2.8% in the past year," Washington Post columnist Heather Long said in a Tuesday Twitter post. "Inflation has been eating up wage gains since April 2021 and shows little sign of significant easing."
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed that real average hourly earnings for all employees have declined 2.8%, seasonally adjusted, from August 2021 to August 2022. The change in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 0.6% in the average workweek resulted in a 3.4% decrease in real average weekly earnings in the last year.
The BLS on Tuesday released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for the 12 months ending August 2022. The data showed an 8.3% all-items annual increase, which represents a 0.1% rise from last month, on a seasonally adjusted basis. Some of the largest contributors were increases in the indexes for shelter, food and medical care.
Food prices rose 0.8% in August and are up 11.4% over last year. Take-home grocery prices rose 0.7% for the month and 13.5% in the past 12 months. The index for shelter climbed 0.7% during the last month and 6.2% during the last year. The medical care index rose 0.7% in August after rising 0.4% in July.
Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and a FOX News contributor, took to Twitter to put the latest CPI numbers into perspective.
"8.3% inflation means your salary is about 1/12 gone," he tweeted on Tuesday. "If you make same pay as last year, higher prices robbed you a full month of your pay. If you buy same things this year as last year, inflation is trying to pay for it with 11 months' worth of pay instead of 12 months' worth."
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