Workers Are Getting Pay Raises And It Could End Up Contributing To High Inflation – By Scott Horsley (NPR) / Aug 11 2021
A lot of workers are getting wage hikes this year as employers compete for scarce labor. But it’s not all good news for workers, or for the economy: Some businesses are raising prices to offset the wage hikes, contributing to surging inflation and eroding some of the benefits from that higher pay.
Data on Wednesday is expected to show consumer prices surged more than 5% in July from a year earlier, although it’s not expected to surpass the nearly 13-year high of 5.4% seen in June.
Most of the recent jump in inflation has been caused by pandemic bottlenecks, like the shortage of chips that limited new car production and caused a big spike in the price of used cars.
Other prices like for hotels and car rentals have also surged and are unlikely to ease off immediately.
