Bob ‘Sully’ Sullivan: San Diego Inflation

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – Radio talk show host Bob ‘Sully’ Sullivan joined Good Morning San Diego to take a closer look at inflation as it relates to the San Diego market vs how your paycheck is keeping up.

If you have been working in San Diego County for the last decade and feel like you are in worse financial shape now it’s because of Sluggish wage growth aka wage stagnation, exacerbated by rising housing costs, have eroded workers’ buying power.
Taking into account yearly inflation — which considers the cost of such things as housing, gasoline and food — overall wages in the county have increased just 2 percent from 2008 to 2018, according to The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Yearly inflation is typically around 2 percent but tends to run hotter in San Diego due to rapidly climbing housing prices. Without at least a 2 percent raise each year, many San Diegans may well have seen their financial situation deteriorate while staying in the same job,” said Sully.

THE GOOD NEWS – NATIONALLY:
1. There are some signs that wages are up nationally in 2019, which suggests that the financial picture for many residents may have brightened since the release of the 2018 data.
2. Also, wages don’t take into account employee benefits, such as good health care plans that can ease cost burdens.
3. Wage growth may also have been stunted by the long economic recovery from the Great Recession, which occurred in the early part of the decade covered in the wage analysis.

WINNERS AND LOSERS:
There are clear winners and losers in the last decade:
After adjusting for the rising cost of living, some occupations are actually paid less than they were 10 years ago.
Elementary school teachers saw gains in pay undercut by inflation the most, experiencing an 11 percent drop in real wages. Even with many teachers having better benefits than the average worker, union leadership says most can’t afford to live in the districts where they teach.
At the same time, those holding jobs in the computer and mathematical fields saw their wages increase by 9 percent.