Cost of living

Typically, unionized companies are the ones that directly tie cost-of-living increases to inflation. And union membership has been falling.

A listener writes: "If you make the minimum wage $15/hour, it’s not enough in New York and it’s way too much in Peoria. Would it be possible to tie the minimum wage to the cost of living?"

As employees stay remote and can move anywhere to work, some companies are reconsidering the math that goes into compensation packages.

The reasons for relocation include the lower cost of living, bigger houses for less money and more conservative politics.

Millions of people's incomes have been reduced or disappeared completely because of COVID-19, and rent day is just around the corner.

Seniors will get an extra 1.6%. But their cost of living rose by 1.9%.

Washington Post reporter Christopher Ingraham once called Red Lake County, Minnesota the "worst place to live in America." Now? He lives there.

China's official inflation is still under 3%, but residents complain that the cost of living in the financial hub of Shanghai just keeps getting higher.

A resident says medical school "made almost no financial sense."

Freda Chisambi says she feels "really, really nervous."