Economics for everyday life
Prices. Paychecks. Policy. Plain-English articles and useful tools to help you understand what the numbers actually mean.
Free to learn. Sources you can follow.
Start here / Cost of living
01A smaller rate of increase still adds to the price.
Hypothetical example · same basket
Understand the differenceSix questions worth understanding.
Sources checked November 1, 2026Read / Understand / Question
Bring earnings into the comparison without pretending one cheaper item makes an entire household better off.
Read the articleThe asking price is only one part of the cost. Financing can change the answer.
Read the articleProducing more with the same work can create room for both. The gains still have to go somewhere.
Read the articleThe interactive lab / TimePrice
Compare historical prices with historical earnings. See both the dollar change and the minutes of gross work needed to buy an item.
Explore prices and work time28 BLS retail-price items + 5 technology index categories.
Technology indexes show relative changes, not observed retail dollar prices.
Average production and nonsupervisory earnings. Recent wages are preliminary. This measures one item, not the whole household budget.
See the calculation and BLS sources →New / Household income
Compare the median after adjusting for inflation and the people sharing those resources. See why household income and hourly wages answer different questions.
Explore household income →Real growth in size-adjusted median household income, 2024 to 2025.
Census, released September 15, 2026. Margin of error: ±1.38 percentage points at 90% confidence.See the measure and source →Keep asking
Good economics starts with better questions.
A national average, a household budget, and a policy estimate can tell different stories. We explain the measure, show the assumptions, and make room for what the evidence cannot tell us.
How we approach the work →