Soaring Inflation Gave Americans a Wage Cut for Seventeenth Month in a Row in August

People shop at a supermarket in Montebello, Calif., on Aug. 23, 2022. US shoppers are facing increasingly high prices on everyday goods and services as inflation continues to surge with high prices for groceries, gasoline, and housing. Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP

Rising prices are eating into the earnings of Americans, with inflation outpacing wages for the seventeenth month in a row in August during the Biden administration.

The 12-month Consumer Price index (CPI), which measures inflation over a one-year period, came in at 8.3 percent in August, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since the beginning of the year, annual inflation has never dropped below 7.5 percent. This elevated inflation rate is reducing the purchasing power of citizens.