Article · Prices
Cost of living in the US, then and now
In September 2026 a dozen eggs cost $2.27 in US cities, a gallon of milk $4.11 and a gallon of gasoline $4.48. Since 1980 consumer prices have risen ×4.07 and average hourly pay ×4.77 — so measured in minutes of work, 16 of these 18 everyday items have become cheaper.
what cost $1 in 1980 cost $4.07 in September 2026; average hourly pay rose ×4.77
4.2 min of work; 7.4 min in 1980
8.2 min of work; 10.9 min in 1980. Record: $5.06 in June 2022
everyday items, against 1980 or their first year in the data; dearer: potatoes and ground beef
production and nonsupervisory workers; after inflation up 17% since 1980
The basket, then and now
Each card is one everyday item at its average price in US cities, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics collects it for the consumer price index: the latest month, every month since the data begin, the price in the comparison year and the minutes of average hourly pay it took to buy.
Pick a year to compare with, or show prices in today's dollars. Minutes of work do not change with the switch: they compare a price with pay of the same months.
Prices decade by decade
Average prices of each year, and the latest month. The switch above the basket shows them in Sep 2026 dollars: a dozen eggs, for example, cost $0.84 in 1980 — $3.43 in today's money.
| Item | 1980 | 1990 | 2000 | 2010 | 2020 | Sep 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eggsdozen, grade A large | $0.84 | $1.01 | $0.91 | $1.66 | $1.51 | $2.27 |
| Milkgallon, whole | — | — | $2.78 | $3.26 | $3.32 | $4.11 |
| White breadpound | $0.51 | $0.69 | $0.93 | $1.37 | $1.45 | $1.83 |
| Ground beefpound, 100% beef | — | $1.59 | $1.57 | $2.37 | $4.12 | $6.79 |
| Whole chickenpound | $0.71 | $0.90 | $1.07 | $1.26 | $1.56 | $2.06 |
| Baconpound, sliced | $1.46 | $2.12 | $3.03 | $4.11 | $5.58 | $6.76 |
| Cheddar cheesepound | — | — | $3.83 | $4.71 | $5.50 | $6.13 |
| Butterpound, salted | — | — | — | — | $3.62 | $3.96 |
| Ground coffeepound, 100% coffee | $3.14 | $2.97 | $3.45 | $3.91 | $4.43 | $9.33 |
| Sugarpound | $0.43 | $0.43 | $0.42 | $0.63 | $0.63 | $1.02 |
| Flourpound, all purpose | $0.21 | $0.25 | $0.29 | $0.48 | $0.45 | $0.55 |
| Ricepound, long grain | $0.51 | $0.50 | — | $0.74 | $0.76 | $1.12 |
| Potatoespound | — | $0.37 | $0.38 | $0.58 | $0.81 | $0.99 |
| Tomatoespound | $0.67 | $1.08 | $1.38 | $1.69 | $1.96 | $1.99 |
| Bananaspound | $0.34 | $0.46 | $0.50 | $0.58 | $0.58 | $0.66 |
| Gasolinegallon, regular | $1.25 | $1.16 | $1.51 | $2.79 | $2.17 | $4.48 |
| Electricitykilowatt-hour | $0.060 | $0.084 | $0.087 | $0.128 | $0.135 | $0.196 |
| Natural gastherm, piped | $0.41 | $0.59 | $0.80 | $1.10 | $1.05 | $1.70 |
Yearly averages of the monthly prices; a year with fewer than 10 monthly prices is left blank. In today's dollars each month is adjusted by the CPI before averaging.
Minutes of work: cheaper than it looks
Divide a price by average hourly pay and you get the minutes of work it takes to buy. A dozen eggs took 7.4 min of work in 1980 and 4.2 min in September 2026; a gallon of gasoline 10.9 min then and 8.2 min now.
Of 18 items, 16 take less work to buy than in 1980 or their first year in the data, and 2 take more. The biggest fall was bananas: from 3.0 min to 1.2 min (−60%). The biggest rise was ground beef: +37%.
The chart as a table
| Item | From | Work then | Work, Sep 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bananaspound | 1980 | 3.0 min | 1.2 min | −60% |
| Ricepound, long grain | 1980 | 4.5 min | 2.1 min | −54% |
| Sugarpound | 1980 | 3.7 min | 1.9 min | −50% |
| Cheddar cheesepound | 1984 | 21.7 min | 11.3 min | −48% |
| Flourpound, all purpose | 1980 | 1.8 min | 1.0 min | −46% |
| Eggsdozen, grade A large | 1980 | 7.4 min | 4.2 min | −44% |
| Milkgallon, whole | 1996 | 13.1 min | 7.6 min | −42% |
| Whole chickenpound | 1980 | 6.2 min | 3.8 min | −39% |
| Tomatoespound | 1980 | 5.9 min | 3.7 min | −38% |
| Ground coffeepound, 100% coffee | 1980 | 27.5 min | 17.2 min | −38% |
| Electricitykilowatt-hour | 1980 | 32 sec | 22 sec | −31% |
| Butterpound, salted | 2019 | 10.2 min | 7.3 min | −28% |
| White breadpound | 1980 | 4.5 min | 3.4 min | −25% |
| Gasolinegallon, regular | 1980 | 10.9 min | 8.2 min | −24% |
| Natural gastherm, piped | 1980 | 3.6 min | 3.1 min | −12% |
| Baconpound, sliced | 1980 | 12.8 min | 12.4 min | −3% |
| Potatoespound | 1986 | 1.7 min | 1.8 min | +7% |
| Ground beefpound, 100% beef | 1984 | 9.1 min | 12.5 min | +37% |
The price of eggs, month by month
A dozen large grade A eggs cost $2.27 in September 2026. The record was $6.23 in March 2025. Few prices in the basket swing as hard: the biggest spikes peaked in February 1984 ($1.32), September 2015 ($2.97), January 2023 ($4.82) and March 2025 ($6.23). Outbreaks of avian flu in 2015 and again from 2022 forced farms to cull millions of laying hens.
After inflation the story changes: in today's dollars a dozen cost $3.43 on average in 1980, and the cheapest month was June 2019, at $1.58.
Gasoline
A gallon of regular unleaded cost $4.48 in September 2026 — 8.2 min of work, against 10.9 min in 1980, when it cost $1.25. The highest price on record was $5.06 in June 2022; in today's dollars the peak was $6.24 in July 2008.
Pay and prices
Average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers in the private sector were $32.75 in October 2026, against $6.85 in 1980 and $2.50 in 1964. Prices rose too, so the switch matters here: after inflation, pay is up 17% since 1980.
The road was not straight: in today's dollars hourly pay peaked in January 1973 and did not climb back above that level until April 2020, 47 years later.
Questions people ask
How much is a dozen eggs right now?
$2.27 in September 2026, the US city average for grade A large eggs. The record was $6.23 in March 2025. In 1980 a dozen cost $0.84 on average — $3.43 in today's dollars.
How much did a gallon of gas cost in 1980?
$1.25 on average in 1980 — $5.07 in today's dollars. In September 2026 it cost $4.48, or 8.2 min of average hourly pay against 10.9 min then.
Have wages kept up with prices?
Since 1980 average hourly pay of production and nonsupervisory workers rose ×4.77 and consumer prices ×4.07, so after inflation pay is up 17% since 1980. 16 of the 18 everyday items here take less work to buy than in 1980 or their first year in the data.
Which prices rose faster than wages?
Measured against average hourly pay since 1980 or the first year with data: Potatoes and ground beef — they take more minutes of work to buy now. Everything else here rose more slowly than pay.
What does “cost of living” mean?
What a household pays for the goods and services it buys. In the US it is usually measured with the consumer price index (CPI) of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks a basket of thousands of prices. By Shiller's CPI series it rose 3.3% in the 12 months to September 2026 and ×4.07 since 1980.
Go deeper
How the numbers are calculated
- Prices and pay: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — average prices from the consumer price index survey (US city average, series APU…) and average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees (AHETPI, Current Employment Statistics) — retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. US government data, in the public domain.
- BLS publishes average prices to show price levels and warns that they are less precise than the CPI itself; months without a published price are left blank. Items are as BLS defines them: eggs are grade A large, bread is white pan bread, beef is 100% ground beef, gasoline is unleaded regular.
- Then: the average of a calendar year's monthly prices (at least 10 months). Now: the latest month, September 2026. Items whose data begin after 1980 are compared with their first year that has at least 10 monthly prices.
- Minutes of work: price ÷ average hourly earnings of the same months × 60. Earnings are before taxes, for production and nonsupervisory employees of the private sector, published since 1964.
- In today's dollars: each month's price × CPI(Sep 2026) ÷ CPI(that month), with the US consumer price index from Robert J. Shiller's data (Yale University); its latest months are estimates.
- Left out: Apples — the series ends in October 2017.
- History, not a forecast. Nothing here is investment advice.