Silver State Times

Inflation continues to force families in Nevada to make critical decisions when it comes to their spending habits.

With a -3.4% wage inflation for August, Nevada's average household income has seen a $2,162 year-over-year loss, bringing the state's current average household income down from $63,588 to $61,426 a year.

Real average hourly earnings for all employees declined 2.8%, seasonally adjusted, from August 2021 to August 2022; latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed. The change in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 0.6% in the average workweek resulted in a 3.4% decrease in real average weekly earnings in the last year.

"Average hourly pay in America **adjusted for inflation** is -2.8% in the past year," Washington Post columnist Heather Long said on Twitter recently. "Inflation has been eating up wage gains since April 2021 and shows little sign of significant easing."

On Sept. 13, the BLS released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for the 12 months ending August 2022. The data showed an 8.3% all items annual increase, which represents a 0.1% rise from last month, on a seasonally adjusted basis. Some of the largest contributors were increases in the indexes for housing, food and medical care.

Food prices rose another 0.8% in August and are up 11.4% over last year. Take-home grocery prices rose 0.7% for the month and 13.5% in the past 12 months. The index for shelter climbed 0.7% in the last month and 6.2% in the last year. The medical care index rose 0.7% in August after rising 0.4% in July.

Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and a FOX News contributor, took to social media to put the latest CPI number into perspective.

"8.3% inflation means your salary is about 1/12 gone," he said in a Sept. 13 tweet. "If you make same pay as last year, higher prices robbed you a full month of your pay. If you buy same things this year as last year, inflation is trying to pay for it with 11 months’ worth of pay instead of 12 months’ worth."