Live nowOn the air 24/7Watch live
Play

MoneyCOST OF LIVING

$14 for a coffee? That's the reality for these Americans

The owner of a cafe in Lansing, a Michigan battleground district, says she passed rising costs to customers; consumer prices rose 3.7 percent in the year to September.

Photo: Coffee
Photo: Petar Milošević · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0

At a glance

The real story

The reporting behind this segment. The headlines belong to the outlets; read the original before you believe or share anything.

What BBN said about it

  1. Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentA cafe in Lansing, Michigan, charged one customer fourteen dollars and twenty cents for a coffee once a ten dollar tip was included, and ABC in Australia says the average cup nationwide is nine dollars and thirty-three cents.

  2. Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThe federal minimum wage is seven dollars and twenty-five cents an hour. So one cup now outruns an hour of work.

  3. Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorAn hour of labor for one coffee. Voters head to the polls Tuesday, and they'll be wide awake.

▶ Watch BBN liveMore Money →

From the archive: everything BBN aired on Monday, November 2, 2026 · the Money archive · all months