80% of US workers hit by inflation in 2005

Let me guess, it didn't impact senior directors of Halliburton and Big Oil. What a track record of success for average Americans.

The 0.5 percent drop in inflation-adjusted hourly earnings last year followed a 0.7 percent fall in 2004 for the 80 percent of the U.S. work force that is employed by the private sector in nonsupervisory jobs.

The main culprit in last year's increase in inflation was a 17.1 percent surge in energy prices, the biggest advance since 1990, as gasoline prices topped $3 per gallon for a time.

The rise in energy accounted for 40 percent of the overall rise in prices last year.

At the White House, presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said that energy prices were still too high and that the president was committed to addressing that problem.

And? What's he waiting for?"

People see energy prices going up and they get a little worried about what they can afford to spend money on," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's in New York.