Inflation may be easing — but low-income people are still paying the steepest prices06:21

Four-dollar gasoline and five-dollar hamburger are putting a squeeze on Tanya Byron's pocketbook. But it's the rent that really stings.

"It's pretty depressing," says the Jacksonville, Fla., travel agent, sitting in the tiny dining room that doubles as her home office. "I make $42,000 a year, and I can barely afford a one-bedroom apartment."

The rising costs of housing, food and other necessities are big drivers of inflation, and they fall especially hard on lower-income Americans, posing a growing challenge for President Biden and the nation's top economic policymakers.

A report from the Labor Department Wednesday shows consumer prices in April were 8.3% higher than a year earlier. That's a modest decrease from the March inflation rate of 8.5%, thanks in part to a short-lived drop in gasoline prices last month. Gas prices have since rebounded to a record high, though unadjusted for inflation.

But food and shelter costs remained elevated, according to the latest inflation report. In Jacksonville, apartment rents have jumped 23% in the last year, according to Realtor.com.

"I feel like there should be some kind of cap on the percentage that a landlord can raise the rent if they haven't done anything," says Byron, whose own apartment dates from another period of soaring prices.

"It was built in 1976, and they have not updated anything," she says. "The doors and baseboards are painted brown. It's clean, but it's very basic."

Byron had hoped to move into a condo by now, but with real estate prices climbing rapidly and mortgage rates topping 5.25%, buying a home feels out of reach.

"I'm genuinely worried about the future," Byron says. "What's going to happen to the people making $15 and $18 an hour and the single mothers and people who have mouths to feed? It's very scary to me."

When inflation is high, everyone pays the price, but research suggests that lower-income families suffer the most.

"Typically food and gasoline and housing are a bigger share of total spending for lower-income households than for higher-income households," says Dan Sichel, an economist at Wellesley College.

There's another critical factor, Sichel adds.

Those with lower incomes tend to pay higher prices, even for similar items. They may be less able to travel to cheaper stores, take advantage of seasonal discounts or "get the giant package of toilet paper to stash in the basement when it's on sale."

Sichel chaired a committee from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that recommended the Labor Department try to reflect those realities as part of an effort to modernize the way the government measures the cost of living.