In the United States, millions of employees who have had to return to their offices after working remotely for nearly two years during the pandemic are facing higher prices on nearly everything, CNN reports. Increasing numbers of Americans are complaining that their daily expenses for meals outside the home, daycare fees and travel to work in the face of rising inflation are virtually out of sync with their incomes, the article notes.

More and more Americans, who worked remotely for nearly two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, are now gradually returning to the office – and finding that spending on almost everything has increased significantly. Runaway inflation, soaring fuel and food prices, the rising cost of child care, and other factors have meant that going back to the office now eats up a significant part of income, given that wages have largely remained the same.

People living in various states told CNN in interviews about their daily expenses that make giving up remote work an expensive proposition. First and foremost, office workers have seen prices rise on virtually all food and drink, from morning coffee to lunchtime salad. In particular, the popular U.S. coffee chain Starbucks raised prices first in the fall of 2021, then again earlier this year, and does not exclude that due to general inflation, Americans will face another increase.

Salad retailer Sweetgreen has also raised its menu prices by 10 percent since last year, according to a recent report from that company. Similar trends have been seen at other U.S. restaurants and ready-to-eat companies, which have raised prices amid global inflation.

The U.S. Department of Labor previously reported that the “out-of-home food index” was up 7.2 percent from a year earlier. And food prices as a whole for April 2022 rose 9.4% over the same period last year — the steepest increase since April 1981, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Meanwhile, U.S. grocery store prices have risen 10.8 percent in the 12 months since last April. Experts have already dubbed this general trend “luncheonflation,” the article notes.

To avoid the extra expense, some have started bringing food from home to work. As Sarah Hill, who works for an insurance company in Buffalo, N.Y., explained in an interview with CNN, before the pandemic she used to spend $25 to $30 a day on breakfast and lunch when she worked in the office. But now many catering businesses near her work have closed, so she regularly brings her own food, which helps her save money.

That said, the resumed commute to work also means higher gasoline costs or use of public transportation, the article notes. And as gasoline prices in the U.S. have recently hit “record highs,” that, too, is getting more expensive. For example, while a gallon of regular gasoline cost an average of $2.44 in February 2020, it now costs $4.6, which is also forcing many to rearrange their daily routine.

As Mike Tobin of Orlando, Florida, who works for a wholesale electric distribution company, told CNN in an interview, in August 2020 it was costing him about $40 to fill up his minivan each gallon – and now it’s almost $75. That said, he said most of his fuel is now spent on trips to the office: he tries to find everything else close to home.

Sarah Hill also noted that rising gas station prices have forced her to change her routine to try to fill up her fuel tank just once a week. She said it now costs her between $110 and $120 per tank to fill up her truck with premium gasoline each time. To keep costs down, Hill tries not to leave the house during the three days she works remotely and combines all her fieldwork with trips to the office, trying to use her lunch hour or right after work.

Kelly Yau McClay also complained that the cost of parking near the office has almost doubled, from $8 to $12 a day. At the same time, the cost of office clothes and necessary cosmetics is also rising: statistics show that the prices of clothing in the U.S. have already increased in April by 5.4 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the article.

But one of the biggest budget items for working parents remains payments for day care and other child care facilities during the workday. According to Child Care Aware of America, the national average annual cost of child care was about $10,200 in 2020. At the same time, McClay said, while her daughter’s monthly daycare fees were $2150 in September 2020, each time she transferred to an older age group, prices rose, and she now has to pay nearly $200 more a month for it.

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