But the rise in prices has eaten into their wage gains and in many higher income fields, the rate of inflation has been greater than the rise in wages.
What is not in doubt is that the cost of university per student has risen by almost five times the rate of inflation since 1983, and graduate salaries have been flat for much of the past decade.
It wrote that the prices for name-brand drugs experience price hikes beyond the rate of inflation, adding that the costs become infeasible for many Americans, forcing them to decline prescription treatments.
For the past 30 years, college tuition has been going up at twice the rate of inflation, and private colleges now charge an average of more than $30,000 a year.