More than 9 in 10 surveyed workers report that their wages\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0keeping up with the cost of living, so\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0looking for work elsewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By Gillian Manning\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pay raises that\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0exceed the inflation rate\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0alleviate financial strain,\u00a0and employees\u00a0notice.\u00a0In\u00a0Monster\u2019s 2026 Cost of Living Report<\/a>\u2014which surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. active workers\u201493% of employees say their wages are not keeping up with rising costs. This is the third year in a row that Monster has gotten a similar\u00a0result, with 95% saying the same in 2024 and 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n Only 7% report that their employer increased pay because of inflation, which is down from 9% in 2025 and 11% in 2024. And most workers\u00a0(71%) say their most recent salary increase was below 3%.\u00a0For reference, the annual inflation rate was\u00a02.9% in 2024, 2.7% in 2025,<\/a>\u00a0and the yearly inflation rate between July 2025 and July 2026 (the most recent data available)\u00a0was\u00a03.4%<\/a>.\u00a0So, raises at and under 3%\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0notably bolster an employee\u2019s financial wellness.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n As a result, 74% of employees report that they are looking for higher-paying roles\u2014up from 62% in 2024 and 56% in 2025.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n Employees are adjusting their financial habits to try and make the pay work, as\u00a061% report cutting non-essential spending, 38% are relying more on credit or loans, and 34% are reducing retirement savings.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWorkers aren\u2019t just feeling the impact of rising\u00a0costs,\u00a0they\u2019re adjusting how they live and work in response,\u201d said Vicki Salemi, career expert at Monster. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing people cut spending, use savings, and actively look for higher pay but most aren\u2019t seeing results.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Monster\u2019s survey also found that:\u00a0<\/p>\n 85% of employees have dipped into savings, 42% of whom say\u00a0they\u2019ve\u00a0used\u00a0a significant portion;\u00a0<\/p>\n 42% are considering taking on an\u00a0additional\u00a0job;\u00a0and\u00a0<\/p>\n 41% worry about job security.\u00a0<\/p>\n Looking to dive deeper? We keep an ever-growing archive of\u00a0HRO Today Association member webinars<\/a>. Watch now: \u201cPay Transparency: Clear Opportunity or Visible Challenge?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 9 in 10 surveyed workers report that their wages\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0keeping up with the cost of living, so\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0looking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,243760,243761,243762,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-737274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-news-ticker","tag-payroll-compensation","tag-people-management","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}