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Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

Yes.

The price of groceries increased more than 20% during President Joe Biden’s first three years in office and exceeded wage growth.

The Consumer Price Index for “food at home” rose from 252.7 on Jan. 1, 2021, to 305 in December 2023 — an increase of 20.7%. The index for average hourly wages increased 14.7% — from 29.9 to 34.3.

During the first three years of President Donald Trump’s administration, the grocery index rose from 237 in January 2017 to 243 in December 2019 — an increase of 2.5%.

The wage index increased 9.1% — from 26 in January 2017 to 28.37 in December 2019.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Glossary : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis): January 2021 to December 2023: Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Food at Home in U.S. City Average

FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis): January 2021 to December 2023: Average Hourly Earnings of All Employees, Total Private

FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis): January 2017 to December 2019: Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Food at Home in U.S. City Average

FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis): January 2017 to December 2019: Average Hourly Earnings of All Employees, Total Private

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Tom Kertscher joined Wisconsin Watch as a full-time reporter in October 2024. He started as a fact checker in January 2023 and contributes to our collaboration with the The Gigafact Project to fight misinformation online. Kertscher is a former longtime newspaper reporter, including at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He is a contributing writer for Milwaukee Magazine and sports freelancer for The Associated Press.