Data: CPI has exceeded the Fed’s 2% target for 67 consecutive months; inflation has erased all U.S. wage gains since the pandemic.

As of November 5, all wage gains U.S. consumers have received since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 have been fully erased by inflation. From April 2020 to September 2023, the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) surged 31.3% cumulatively—reaching a record high in September—while average hourly earnings rose only 25.9% over the same period. Notably, the CPI’s year-on-year increase has exceeded the Federal Reserve’s 2% long-term inflation target for 67 consecutive months—the third-longest such stretch in the past century. Only two prior episodes were longer: one lasting 242 months, ending in 1986; and another spanning 128 months, ending in 1997. Inflation continues to erode Americans’ real purchasing power.