Has pay kept up with inflation?

They use two ways to measure inflation, neither of which are accurate.

"How can you say that?!?!?" Well, I'm a human who uses money for goods and services and I wasn't born yesterday.

The rule of 72 is something investors and economists use to estimate how long it should take for something to double given a certain start price and a certain growth rate, you divide 72 by the percent rate of growth. For example, if the growth rate is 7.2% it should double every 10 years, and if the growth rate is 2% then it should double every 36 years.

Now the keen sighted among you might notice that if prices of a thing double in 36 years if it rises at 2% then many millennials and all of gen Z should have never seen a full doubling of prices.

That hasn't been the experience of most people on a lot of things. Housing is quadruple what it was 20 years ago where I live, and rents similarly went up (but who needs a place to live?) gasoline has tripled since I pumped gas saving for college. Electricity has doubled. Bread (a simple staple food) has doubled. Forget about steak and chicken and pork chops! Internet has quadrupled easily. Used cars went into the stratosphere.

All while the state goes "don't worry everyone! 2%! In fact we might not even hit 2% this year we better monetize more debt!"