If your income is flat and prices go up, you’re worse off. That’s what’s happened to the median U.S. household. From January 2009 to August 2012, the income for a household at the midpoint of all U.S. incomes rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent, according to Sentier Research. But the price of a bundle of goods and services that a typical family might buy went up 9.1 percent. This squeeze has reduced the buying power of the median household by 8.2 percent.

Source: Sentier Research; Photo illustration by Emily Keegin and Tracy Ma for Bloomberg Businessweek