Prices Up 31.3% Since 2020, Paychecks Up 25.9% — Wage Gains Wiped Out

American paychecks are losing a footrace with prices. According to The Kobeissi Letter, US consumer prices have climbed 31.3% since April 2020 and hit an all-time high in September. Average hourly earnings over that same stretch managed just 25.9%.

Do the math and the gap is brutal: wages trailed prices by more than 5 percentage points, so the typical worker's raise hasn't covered the bill. The 2020 pandemic-era gains are gone — not trimmed, erased.

The deeper problem is how long this has dragged on. CPI has now sat above the Federal Reserve's 2% target for 67 straight months, per Kobeissi. That's the third-longest run of above-target inflation in the past century.

Only two stretches lasted longer. One ran 242 months and finally ended in 1986. The other lasted 128 months and wrapped up in 1997. Both were eras when inflation dug in and refused to leave quietly.

For households, the takeaway is simple and sour: the money in the account buys less than it did, and it has been that way for years. The Fed's 2% goal remains the line everyone is watching — and it hasn't been touched in over five years.