Skip to content

Friday, Jan. 14, 2022

Does food necessarily become less affordable as prices rise?


no

Consumers may have greater purchasing power even when food prices rise, because wages and salaries may increase faster than the price of food.

This result can differ across different types of food. Technological advances in turkey production meant that a worker earning the median weekly salary in 1980 would have to work almost three hours to earn enough to buy a 20-pound turkey, but only an hour and 15 minutes in 2019.

Likewise, it takes less time for a worker receiving the median weekly salary to purchase bread and potatoes today than in the 2008 to 2012 period. But beef steak is less affordable today than in the past.

See a full discussion of this at EconoFact

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

About fact briefs

Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

See all fact briefs

EconoFact is a non-partisan publication designed to bring key facts and incisive analysis to the national debate on economic and social policies. Launched in January 2017, it is written by leading academic economists from across the country who belong to the EconoFact Network. It is published by the Edward R. Murrow Center for a Digital World at The Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Learn More

Be a Friend of facts

Help us fund more great fact briefs like this one.