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There are many voices saying that the cost of living is getting worse because the price keeps rising like this, but the salary hasn't risen that much.

There is a strong demand for a raise right now, but the government is in a position to refrain from doing so, as it could lead to higher prices.



Reporter Jeong Hye-jin will tell you about this.



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is a large supermarket in Seoul.



Let's take a look at the daily necessities that we often buy in our house of 4, a city where a married couple, a 3-year-old child, and a 60-year-old grandmother live together.



For the same product, the price of processed foods such as wheat flour 43%, cooking oil 10%, and ramen 9% increased significantly compared to a year ago, and fresh foods such as green onions 62%, potatoes 50%, and onions 34% rose sharply.



I buy 12 kinds of food, last year it was about 74,800 won, but this year it was 84,000 won, which means that the cost of living has risen by more than 12% in one year.


Enlarging an image


Wages have not risen as much as prices have risen.



In the first quarter of this year, the income of urban worker households on their pay stubs increased 6.4% from a year earlier.



However, the real income, after subtracting the inflation rate from the increase in wages, was calculated to have declined in the middle class.



Excluding the richest 20% of income earners and the bottom 20%, whose government support has increased, the real income of middle-class households has decreased by nearly 1 to 3% from a year ago.



[Kim Sang-bong / Professor of Economics, Hansung University: When the real income of the middle class decreases, the ability to consume will decrease.

Consumption will decrease and the growth rate will fall again.]



As inflation soared to 6% since April, the real income of the middle class in the second quarter is expected to decrease further.



In addition, there is also high inflation expected that prices will rise further, leading to demand for a wage increase and increasing inflation pressure.



(Video coverage: Han Il-sang, video editing: Park Chun-bae)