Sh*t Costs Too Much: Inflation
Inflation is outrunning wages for the fifth straight month as diesel tops $6 a gallon, tariffs add more than $1,000 a year, and health premiums head for another double-digit jump.
Sh*t Costs Too Much.
Fact sheet · 2026
$6.06
Record national diesel price this month — the first time it has ever crossed $6 a gallon
$1,000+
Added to what the typical household pays each year by tariffs
$100B
In higher energy costs from the war with Iran — more than $760 per household
Americans are paying more for everything these days, and paychecks are falling further behind every month. This week’s inflation reports showed costs continuously climbing for consumers and businesses alike, with inflation now outrunning wage growth for the fifth month in a row. Diesel crossed $6 a gallon for the first time ever, tariffs are taxing nearly everything else, and health care cuts have premiums headed for a second straight double-digit jump. Thanks to spiking costs, making ends meet has gone from hard to impossible for millions of families.
Key points
- Consumer prices rose 3.4% over the past year while hourly earnings rose just 3.1% — the slowest wage growth since 2021 — putting inflation ahead of paychecks for the fifth month in a row, while wholesale prices climbed 5.4%.
- Inflation and the cost of living rank as the country’s most important issue in every national survey one of the country’s top pollsters has taken this year.
- Two-thirds of Americans are very concerned about the price of food and everyday goods, and majorities say the same about housing (64%), gasoline (56%), and electricity (54%).
- Nearly 80% say grocery and gas prices have risen over the past six months, and 69% expect inflation to keep climbing.
- Health care premiums are expected to jump nearly three times faster than wages again next year for people with job-based insurance, and by double digits for the millions who get coverage through the Affordable Care Act.
- Energy prices rose 16.3% over the past year, with gasoline up 27.4% and fuel oil up 52%, and diesel topped $6 a gallon for the first time ever this month.
- The war with Iran has cost consumers $100 billion in higher energy prices — more than $760 per household.
- Tariffs add more than $1,000 a year to what the typical household pays.
Core drivers
War with Iran is driving up the cost of transporting everything and growing food
At the end of February, the U.S. launched strikes against Iran, sparking a war that has shuttered the seaway carrying a fifth of the world’s oil and roughly 43% of its seaborne urea fertilizer. Six months in, tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has fallen to its lowest level since May, and crude oil prices are above $100 a barrel, translating to sky-high gas and diesel prices.
Diesel just crossed $6 a gallon for the first time ever
The national average diesel price hit a record $6.06 this month, up more than 60% from $3.71 a year ago. Because diesel moves nearly everything Americans buy, that cost gets passed on in grocery aisles and shipping first — wholesale trucking freight rates climbed 2.0% in August alone, while warehousing and transportation services rose 2.3%. Costs deeper in the pipeline are rising faster still, with prices for the processed goods purchased by businesses up 11.5% over the past year and raw materials up 12.8%, meaning more price increases are still headed for store shelves.
Health care cuts are spiking costs
Last year, the federal government enacted sweeping legislation cutting $1 trillion from Medicaid and the ACA to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations. Some 8 million Americans have already lost coverage through Medicaid, CHIP, or the ACA since the cuts became law. ACA insurers in all 50 states have proposed a median 15% premium increase for 2027, employers expect health benefit costs to jump 8.2% — the biggest increase since 2003 — and CBPP estimates at least 7.1 million people will lose Medicaid once work-reporting rules take effect next year.
Tariffs are taxing nearly everything else
Tariffs are costing the typical American household more than $1,000 a year, a bill paid by families rather than foreign governments. The latest import duties of up to 12.5% on 60 economies took effect in late July, reaching more than 99% of everything the country imports. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that nearly 90% of the tariffs’ economic burden fell on U.S. firms and consumers, and nearly half of businesses that paid them still planned further price increases.
Every figure here is sourced and linked to public reporting, government data, and independent analysis.
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