According to CNN, inflation has made going back to work more expensive due to eating, commuting, and daycare costs, despite no increase in employee compensation.

Some daily expenses have been eating into employees’ paychecks, making living difficult in the aftermath of the pandemic. At the moment, one of them is eating at the office.

It costs a lot of money to have coffee and lunch with coworkers. The Labor Department announced earlier this month that the index for meals consumed away from home had risen by 7.2 percent in the previous year.

Food prices have also risen, according to data. Starbucks, for example, hiked prices in the United States earlier this year and in October 2021, and warned that they could go considerably higher.

Due to worldwide inflation, restaurants and other businesses have boosted menu pricing. “Lunchflation is 100 percent real; everything has gone up in price,” said Kelly Yau McClay of Potomac, Maryland.

He claimed that it used to be much easier to get a great lunch without breaking the bank.

CNN polled the population and found that many individuals felt that work-related expenses were real.

Yau McClay, whose profession has evolved into a hybrid, said she spends $30 to $35 a day on business-related expenses.

It has also been beneficial in some ways for others. Sara Hill, a mother of four, said she noticed an increase in her grocery bill during the lockdown as more meals were prepared at home.

“Because I was closer to the kitchen, I was consuming more food… my food spending was still increasing because we were all home,” Hill explained.

Apart from “lunchflation,” commuting to work has become difficult and expensive, with fuel prices skyrocketing.

Childcare is a significant financial burden for working parents. According to Child Care Aware of America, the national average yearly cost of childcare will be $10,174 in 2020.