Everyone has a fixed income now

I'm not entirely sure when the term "fixed income" became associated almost entirely with retirees. Sure, you can't work overtime to get a bigger social security or pension check at the end of the month, but at least social security has periodic cost of living increases. Nationally, average wage growth has been static for the past eight years and if you add inflation, wage earners are looking at taking home less now in earnings than they did when Bush was elected.
The only people I know that have seen raises in the past couple of years had salaried government jobs, and even then they generally ended up having to work longer hours for that pay. One of my coworkers mentioned to me today that he hasn't gotten a raise in four years. His $8.85 an hour job seemed pretty decent back then, but then again he only gets 20 hours a week now.

So, the next time I see a news story talking about the cost of electricity or medication, I would appreciate it if they didn't automatically zoom to an interview with Grandma Betty to make the point that some people won't be able to afford the next hike from Xcel. Most people won't be able to afford it because we're all on fixed incomes now.