$100 in 1938 is worth $116 in 1942,
because prices increased 15.6% over that period, an average of
3.69% a year.
$100 in 1938 has
the same buying power as
$116
in 1942
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
15.6%
Average inflation rate
3.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$116
Price difference ($100 base)
$15.60
CPI in 1938
14.1
CPI in 1942
16.3
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
$100 in 1938 → 1942
$116
$100 in 1942 → 1938
$86.50
What happened to prices between 1938 and 1942
Between 1938 and 1942, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.1 to 16.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 15.6%, which works out to an average of
3.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1938 bought what
$0.87 buys in 1942: the 1938 dollar
lost 13.5% of its purchasing power over
these 4 years.
Consumer prices fell 2.1% in 1938, reversing most of 1937’s
gain and interrupting four straight years of recovery from the Depression’s
trough. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the bottom of the
downturn, which had begun that May, to June 1938, a sharp 13-month
contraction that briefly pushed unemployment back up near 19%. Even in a
year the economy was shrinking again, Congress passed one of the New Deal’s
most lasting reforms. The Fair Labor Standards Act, signed June 25 and
effective that October, established the first federal minimum wage, 25
cents an hour, capped the standard workweek at 44 hours with time-and-a-half
overtime beyond it, and restricted the employment of children in most
industries. The wage floor and hours limits applied only to workers engaged
in interstate commerce at first, but they set a precedent that would expand
in the decades that followed. Consumer prices stood 42.4% above their
1913 level and 17.5% below their 1929 peak, evidence of how
far the recovery still had to go even eight years after the Depression
began. First-class postage held at 3 cents.
Every 1938 amount converts to 1942 at the same ratio, 1.16: $1,000 becomes
$1,156, and $10,000 becomes $11,560.
Amount in 1938
Value in 1942
$1.00
$1.16
$5.00
$5.78
$10.00
$11.56
$20.00
$23.12
$50.00
$57.80
$100
$116
$500
$578
$1,000
$1,156
$5,000
$5,780
$10,000
$11,560
$100,000
$115,603
$1,000,000
$1,156,028
Inflation by spending category, 1938–1942
Between 1938 and 1942, food rose the most, up 27.3%, while medical care rose the least, up 3.9%, against 15.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1938
spending costs in 1942, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1938 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.69%
$116
Food
6.21%
$127
Apparel
5.08%
$122
Transportation
2.32%
$110
Medical care
0.96%
$104
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1938: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1938 to 1942
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.90% a year, and fell in the 1930s (0.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1938–1942 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1938, at end
1938–1940
-0.36%
-0.7%
$99.29
1940–1942
7.90%
16.4%
$116
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1938
$100 from 1938 had already become $99.29 by
1940, on its way to $116 in 1942; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.9% in 1942, and prices fell 1.4% in 1939, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1942, prices rose 10.9% and $100 from 1938 had the buying
power of $116; the year's average CPI of 16.3 is the level
behind every 1942 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 10.9% in 1942, up from 1941’s already
rapid 5.0% and the fastest increase since 1920, as the economy’s crash
conversion to war production collided with shrinking supplies of civilian
goods. The government tried to contain it: the General Maximum Price
Regulation, effective May 18 and known as “General Max,” froze most retail
prices at their highest March level, the broadest price control Washington
had ever attempted. Rationing followed close behind. Sugar rationing began
that May and gasoline rationing went nationwide in December, the leading
edge of a system that would eventually cover meat, coffee, shoes, tires, and
dozens of other goods before the war ended. The year’s other defining
wartime measure had nothing to do with prices. Executive Order 9066, signed
February 19, authorized the military to remove more than 110,000 Japanese
Americans, most of them U.S. citizens, from the West Coast and hold them in
inland internment camps for the war’s duration, one of the era’s starkest
violations of civil liberties. Even with price controls in place, consumer
prices climbed more than 10% for the first time since 1920, leaving the CPI
64.6% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at 3
cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1938 to 1942: $100 is worth $116 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1942/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1938 to 1942. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1938-to-1942/