Commentary

If there’s any comfort amid rising costs, it’s that gas prices appear to be leveling off

Good Friday Morning, Fellow Seekers.

So here’s the good news: Average weekly wages in the Keystone State saw a year-over-year increase of 5.1 percent last year, and the job market still belongs to workers. But rising prices for what I’ll call the Sesame Street staples — a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter — are eating into those gains, according to new data.

As Axios reports, food prices (which rose by 10.4 percent) helped drive the Consumer Price Index up by 9.1 percent over the last year, for the biggest annual increase since November 1981.

If there’s a bright spot here, it’s that skyrocketing gas prices seem to be leveling off. The average price of a gallon of regular-grade gas dropped by 19 cents over the past two weeks, to an average of $4.61 per-gallon nationally, Axios reports.

Nonetheless, workers still are having trouble stretching their take-home pay. According to a new report by the financial literacy website Smartest Dollar, while nominal wages continue to rise, inflation-adjusted wages have shown signs of decline.

In non-adjusted dollars, average weekly wages rose to $1,339 in the last quarter of 2020, and rose again to $1,418 in the last quarter of 2021, the site’s analysis found. But inflation-adjusted wages decreased by 0.8 percent during the same time period, from $1,429 to $1,418, the analysis showed.

Some industries also did a...

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