Affordability – Costs or Wages?

The new WA tax legislation from this session stripped out the sales tax on some groceries – sounds like diapers and hygiene products. It also allows for some level of B&O tax credits for small businesses.

What do you all think would be most effective, or needs to happen, to get affordability under control for most people? Is it lowering prices on necessities – food, health, housing, utilities? (which we’ve now seen they can do by removing taxes). Or do wages in this region need to dramatically improve?

I’ve read in a few places that real wages have gone up from 2021 to 2026. However depending on the metric used, they were flat or even slightly outpaced when compared with a cumulative inflation of around 26% for the same period. Inflation was holding pretty well at 2.5% early this year, but now it’s up to 3.3% in the March data. It has certainly cooled since the pandemic highs but prices are still going up, if slower. My industry is a mess, I’m curious if others are seeing better wage growth/opportunity in other sectors