Housing, healthcare, childcare, and education have become more expensive. These are the biggest expenses for most people and are necessities. So the percentage of income available for other expenses has definitely decreased. Not sure about real wages though.
In theory, inflation is supposed to capture those increases. The median real wage has gone up about 10-15% from 2005-2025. In theory, it should be more affordable. It doesn't feel that way to me, but maybe there are numbers I'm missing, or the way we measure inflation and apply it to affordability is broken.
