After searing inflation, "American workers are getting ahead," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said "American workers are getting ahead" now that their pay is growing faster than inflation, making the Biden administration's case that the U.S. has rebounded from the economic calamity caused by the pandemic. 

"We know that Americans are experiencing discomfort because some important prices are higher than they were pre-pandemic," Yellen told "CBS Evening News." "But what I think is really important is that wages have gone up along with prices, so people are better off than they were pre-pandemic."

Inflation ranked as the most important problem facing the U.S. in a December poll of American adults by CBS News, even outpacing issues like immigration and the state of democracy. Prices skyrocketed in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, with inflation reaching a 40-year high of 9.1% in June 2022, squeezing millions of households whose incomes failed to keep pace.