It’s an issue with how inflation numbers are reported and I continue to believe that it’s done intentionally to confuse people (or reassure them).
It’s reported year on year but people don’t plan their finances year on year, they think back further than the last year so inflation should be reported both year on year and with a reference year.
It’s funny that other economy stats are actually reported in comparison to major events but not inflation. “The economy has improved X% since the 2008 financial crisis!” is the kind of things that’s getting reported, well, inflation should be reported the same way. How much has it increased since January 2020? That’s what people are feeling right now, not the 3% since August 2023.
They think people are too dumb to understand that zero is not the target for inflation. They want to make the good news they’re reporting sound like good news.
You can disagree with their approach, but where they’re coming from makes sense. After all, the OP in the screenshot exists.
It’s specially a problem in the US, and other selected third world countries, where they don’t have yearly minimum wage increases to offset inflation. I live in Brazil, and I get a raise that is always higher to the yearly inflation (thanks for my union), so yes, things are higher as ever, but my salary too.
Annual adjustment or annual + step increment?
Long term the annual adjustment will usually track inflation or be pretty close to it but until you’ve reached your last step you get two wage increases a year so it feels like you’re beating inflation…
Sorry, don’t understand the difference. In Brazil the raise is usually signed in March, but retroactive to the beginning of the year. Is negotiated on base of the past year inflation, so technically we’re always behind, because we get the rise at begging of year, but inflation is a constant process. There’s something I find bullshit and is that the raise is rated by the time you worked on the past year, so if you start working in July, you only get 50% of the negotiated raise. Not sure if it general or something stupid in my union contract.
I’m in the US, I’ve got a solid job, everyone I know says I’m lucky to get raises every year. My raises are still consistently slightly under inflation. Lots of the people I work with don’t understand why that means we’re not actually getting raises, and nobody wants to rock the boat and risk the small amount we do gain each year. It’s wild over here
Well then people might start asking questions like why X is up Y% but the ingredients for X have only gone up Z% in total
