Cost of Living · USD
Month-on-month trends and what they mean for pay
Live from IPC’s own basket pricing, last priced Jan 2026. This is a free preview: the full report adds the basket detail, the methodology and whether take-home pay covers the basket at each level.
The monthly basket, by employment level
What a month costs a household at each level IPC prices, at every collection date.
Pay moves in steps, when awards are made. The basket moves every month, and the gap between the two is what your people feel.
What the basket is made of
Share of the monthly basket by category, at the latest pricing.
NEC Employees: $446 a month in total. Shares are of this level’s own basket.
Commentary
The basket is falling. The NEC Employees basket cost $446 a month in Jan 2026, down 13.0% on Feb 2025.
It rose in 4 of 10 pricings. Moves from one pricing to the next ranged from −17.6% to +12.3%, and the latest, to Jan 2026, was +3.1%. The swings are wide, so judge the trend over the whole period rather than any single month.
Housing and Utilities carries the most weight. It is 41.5% of the NEC Employees basket, followed by Education at 20.2% and Transport at 9.9%. A flat percentage increase buys back least where these lines take the biggest share.
What these figures cover. A basket is priced for NEC Employees. Executives, Senior Managers, Middle Managers and Professional aren’t priced yet, so these figures don’t speak for those levels.
What to do with it. Set the increase budget against both numbers, market movement and the cost of living, and decide which one you are protecting. The full report sets each basket against take-home pay after PAYE, level by level.
The numbers
| Month | NEC Employees | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 2026 | $446 | +3.1% |
| Dec 2025 | $432 | −16.6% |
| Nov 2025 | $518 | +3.0% |
| Oct 2025 | $503 | +12.3% |
| Aug 2025 | $448 | +11.5% |
| Jul 2025 | $402 | −3.8% |
| Jun 2025 | $418 | −17.6% |
| May 2025 | $507 | 0.0% |
| Apr 2025 | $507 | 0.0% |
| Mar 2025 | $507 | −1.0% |
| Feb 2025 | $512 | — |
Get the Cost of Living Report
The basket detail, the methodology, and whether take-home pay after PAYE covers the basket at each level.