Four years after pandemic-era price spikes, wages still haven’t fully caught up. Bankrate’s 2025 Wage to Inflation Index shows pay gains trail cumulative inflation by 1.2 percentage points since January 2021, highlighting why many households remain squeezed.
Wage Growth Lags Behind Inflation, Shows Fresh Study
On average, wages are up 21.5% while prices climbed 22.7% over that span, Bankrate says, noting the gap has narrowed from 2022 but remains as hiring cools.
Notably, some professions are falling further behind than others. Bankrate’s breakdown shows the widest gaps in education (–4.8 percentage points), construction (–3.6), financial activities (–3.4), professional and business services (–2.8) and manufacturing (–2.5).
Separate research by the Economic Policy Institute and the Center for Economic and Policy Research from September 2024 finds …