(AURN News) — As tariffs climb to their highest levels since 1934, American families are being hit hard — with new data showing costs could reach thousands of dollars per household this year.
The Budget Lab at Yale reports that the current average U.S. tariff rate is 18.3%, marking the sharpest increase in trade barriers in more than 90 years. The result, they say, is a direct squeeze on consumer prices and household incomes.
“The price level from all 2025 tariffs rises by 1.8% in the short-run,” the report states, “the equivalent of an average per household income loss of $2,400 in 2025.”
That estimate assumes no intervention from the Federal Reserve and reflects rising prices, not falling wages. If the Fed were to respond, they add, some of the adjustment could shift to “lower nominal incomes.”
Households at the bottom of the income distribution are projected to lose $1,300 per year before adjusting their spending. Even after substitution, the price increase settles at 1.5% — a $2,000 loss per household.
President Donald Trump has continued his use of aggressive tariffs throughout his second term, framing them as leverage in trade negotiations. But the Yale analysis underscores how quickly those policies ripple down to working families already stretched thin by rising costs.
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