In August, consumer prices rose 3.4 percent compared with a year earlier. Gasoline jumped nearly 4 percent in a single month, and the Federal Reserve raised interest rates in September for the first time in more than three years.

Anyone trying to buy a house got another piece of bad news. The average 30-year mortgage reached 7.28 percent. At that rate, principal and interest alone on a $300,000 mortgage is roughly $2,000 a month, before taxes and insurance.

For working families, it all piles up. More at the grocery store and gas pump. Higher heating bills, insurance and credit card rates. Hundreds more every month if you are trying to buy a home.

But how did we get here? Tariffs have increased the cost of imported goods and materials. The conflict with Iran has pushed up global energy prices, which means higher costs for transportation, heating, agriculture and everything that has to move by truck. The national debt passed $40 trillion this year, and heavy government borrowing is one factor keeping long-term interest rates, including mortgage rates, high.

So what can we do about it here in Connecticut? We can make other parts of a household budget a little easier. Connecticut has enacted a broad middle-class income tax cut, expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit and provided more aid to cities and towns to help take pressure off local taxpayers.

But workers also need their income to keep pace. That is where much of CSEA’s work is focused right now. Thousands of family child care providers are negotiating a new contract with the State as the costs of food, utilities, insurance and supplies continue to rise. Our paraeducators are preparing to return to the Capitol to fight for a statewide $45,000 minimum salary. And across our municipal and Board of Education chapters, CSEA members are in dozens of contract fights for better wages, healthcare and working conditions.

Those fights may look different from workplace to workplace, but the problem is the same. Workers are asking whether their paycheck still covers what it actually costs to live in Connecticut.

Collective bargaining is how workers do something about that. The affordability crisis may be driven by forces much bigger than any one workplace, but part of the answer is still close to home: strong contracts, better wages and workers having the power to bargain for their share.