Lifestyle

65% of Americans Say Prices Are Outrunning Their Paychecks

By Mike Harper · April 13, 2026

The math isn’t working for most Americans right now — and a wave of fresh data is putting numbers to what millions of households already feel.

A J.D. Power survey of 4,000 U.S. adults conducted in February found that 65% of consumers say price increases are outpacing their income. A separate CNBC and SurveyMonkey quarterly survey released in April found that 56% of Americans say everyday life has become less affordable over the past year, with many cutting back on dining out, groceries, and discretionary spending just to stay on budget.

Those numbers landed the same week March inflation data came in hotter than expected.

According to Fox Business, the Consumer Price Index rose 0.9% from February to March — pushing the annual inflation rate to 3.3%, up sharply from 2.4% the month before. The driving force was energy. Gasoline prices surged 21.2% in March, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the overall increase, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The Iran war’s disruption to global oil flows is the direct cause — and with the Strait of Hormuz still effectively closed and a U.S. naval blockade now in place, relief at the pump is not coming soon.

The income picture makes it worse. After accounting for inflation, real hourly earnings have risen only about 1.4% over the past year — meaning purchasing power for most workers is essentially flat. Cumulatively, prices are up about 16% over the past four years, according to CPI data, and that accumulated gap between what things cost and what people earn has never really closed.

Consumer sentiment fell in April to its lowest reading on record in the University of Michigan’s long-running survey. That’s a notable data point — the survey has been running since the 1940s.

A certified financial planner quoted by CNBC put it plainly: “A big driver of this anxiety is the combination of persistent inflation, higher borrowing costs and uncertainty around jobs and the broader economy. All of this on top of the extreme instability around the world.”

The Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target has not been hit since February 2021. With energy prices now surging and the geopolitical situation around the Strait of Hormuz unresolved, forecasters are revising upward. The OECD is projecting full-year U.S. inflation at 4.2% for 2026 — well above the Fed’s own estimate of 2.7%.

What that means for household budgets between now and year-end depends heavily on whether the Iran situation stabilizes. For now, it hasn’t — and the people feeling it most directly aren’t economists or analysts. They’re the 65% already cutting back.