The middle class is buckling under almost five years of persistent inflation

After nearly five years of high prices, many middle-class earners thought life would be more affordable by now. Costs for goods and services are 25% above where they were in 2020. Even though the inflation rate is below its recent 2022 high, certain essentials like coffee, ground beef and car repairs are up markedly this year.

“Life felt more doable a year and a half ago," said Holly Frew, a college communications director with a household income around $135,000 living in Atlanta. “I need to know where the light is at the end of the tunnel."

The American middle class encompasses a broad cross section of workers that includes white-collar office employees, nurses and plumbers, although there is no universally accepted definition.

Pew Research Center defines the middle class broadly as having a household income between about $66,666 and $200,000, depending on where they live. Perpetual sticker shock is making many within the group feel worse about both their own finances and the future of the country. They are hunting for bargains and spending more carefully.

Cost-of-living issues also pushed voters this month toward candidates who promised to address what many now see as an affordability crisis. Similar issues dogged Joe Biden’s re-election campaign last year and have recently weighed on President Trump’s approval ratings.

The frugality of the middle-class customer figures as a recurring theme in recent corporate earnings reports. Fast-food restaurant Wingstop said this month that middle-income diners have now joined lower-income ones in dialing back purchases. Target reported slumping sales and said customers are spending cautiously on discretionary items such as home decor and apparel. Walmart, meanwhile, posted strong sales as consumers from all income groups flocked to the retailer’s value.

The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey showed that 44% of middle-income respondents said their financial situation was worse than it was a year ago, while 23% said it was better, based on a three-month average ending in September. Those who feel worse off overwhelmingly said it was because of higher prices.

Their gloomy outlook was in contrast with the most affluent families, who are enjoying stock-market gains and powering the economy with their spending. Many in the middle class also have stock investments and retirement funds, but they are more apt to feel pinched, and resentful of rising costs of everything from the price of a steak to a new couch.

“People feel like their living standards are falling behind," said Stefanie Stantcheva, a Harvard economics professor who has studied the psychology of inflation. Her research has found the sentiment about rising prices is more pronounced among lower earners.

The effort to keep up with higher prices feels relentless to Teri Kopp, who lives in Southbury, Conn., and works as an administrator at a synagogue. “I’m tired," she said.

Kopp and her husband Bill, an HVAC technician, earn a combined $115,000 a year. They often sit in the dark with only strings of LED lights on to save on electric costs. She is considering painting rocks to send to friends as Christmas gifts. Their biggest vacation this year, a road trip to Maine, was mostly covered by cash back from a shopping-rewards program.

Kopp, 59, doesn’t see any way to quickly pay off the $15,000 in credit-card debt the family took on largely to cover medical bills for knee surgeries. She also has $30,000 in debt from her daughter’s undergraduate degree in biology, which has yet to yield any job offers in a tough labor market for new graduates.

Kopp voted for Trump last November in part because she wasn’t happy with how Biden handled the economy. She approves of the job Trump is doing but is skeptical that it will lead to any relief on costs soon. “I think Trump has a hard nut to crack to bring all this stuff down," she said.

Many middle-class families were feeling pretty good not so long ago. Prices of everyday goods were relatively stable in the decade following the 2008-09 financial crisis. Interest rates were low, making it more affordable to buy a home.

When the pandemic hit, many in the middle class were able to save more money after getting government stimulus checks and an expanded child tax credit. By the start of 2022, people in the 40% to 80% range of income percentiles had more than $500 billion in extra savings, according to Moody’s Analytics.

Inflation started to pick up in spring 2021 and peaked at 9.1% in June 2022. By the beginning of 2025, the middle class had spent down all their extra savings, often to keep up with higher costs, according to Moody’s. Wage increases weren’t much help—they were consumed by inflation, too.

Up until last year, Frew felt like she was on comfortable financial footing.

As a solo mom to a three-year-old paying for full-time daycare, she has always been a careful budgeter. But after she bought a new house in a better school zone in the spring of 2024, she began to realize her income wasn’t going to go as far as she initially calculated. In addition to paying a higher mortgage rate, at 6.5%, than she paid at her previous house, her property taxes went up around $1,000 after the first year, and a quote on her insurance policy jumped $600.

“It’s been one thing after another," said Frew, who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. She decided to skip dental insurance during open enrollment this month to mitigate increases to her overall premiums, and she downgraded her home insurance policy to a higher-deductible option with lower yearly payments. She also has taken on a side hustle managing a rental property.

“I’m taking my chances and hoping I can just get by and that we don’t have any home or dental emergencies," Frew said.

English teacher Cate Pemberton, who lives outside Richmond, Va., voted for Democrat Abigail Spanberger in the recent Virginia governor’s election. Her hope was that an affordability platform pushed by Spanberger, who won the election, would translate to higher pay for public school workers like her.

“Republicans don’t like paying teachers and Democrats at least pretend they do," said Pemberton, 45.

Pemberton makes $90,000 a year teaching middle-schoolers during the day and high-schoolers at night. Monday through Thursday, she is at school before 7 a.m., and, following a two-hour midday break, doesn’t get home until 9:30 at night.

But between a coming $150 increase in her rent, $148 uptick in her monthly insurance premiums, and paying for her daughter’s living expenses while she is in college, Pemberton is only able to contribute $50 per paycheck to her retirement fund. She skipped her annual beach vacation to Topsail Island in North Carolina this summer, but says she has few places left to cut back.

“I’ll be teaching four nights a week probably until I die," she said. “Or at least until my daughter stops asking me for dresses to wear to formals."

Write to Rachel Louise Ensign at Rachel.Ensign@wsj.com and Rachel Wolfe at rachel.wolfe@wsj.com