What’s your raise really worth?

Inflation has something to say about it. Despite repeated wage increases for the lowest-paid Americans, when their salaries are adjusted for inflation, they have decreased 0.5 % when compared to 2020. Why is this? "I'm just kind of scraping by," said a fast-food joint assistant manager in Norcross, Ga., who in 2021 alone had two pay increases, to $11 and $14 an hour respectively and "yet can barely afford the 6.5% increase in rent for her shared two-bedroom apartment." Sarah Chaney Cambon and Gwynn Guilford investigate the crude reality of American's wages.