• Workers on family health insurance plans paid $7,471 for premiums in 2026, a 9% increase from 2025.
• Costs are even higher at smaller businesses: Workers there pay nearly $10,000 for family premiums.
• Rising premiums have outpaced wage growth, and are only expected to increase more in 2027.

It's costing families nearly $7,500 a year for health insurance — and more increases are looming.

A 2026 health benefits survey from KFF found that workers on a family plan paid an average of $7,471 a year in premiums — a 9% increase from 2025. And that's just the worker contribution — when accounting for employer contributions, family plan premiums totaled $28,303 in 2026, a roughly 5% increase from 2025.

That's a hefty price for both workers and their employers, and even more acute for workers at smaller businesses: KFF's survey found that at firms with fewer than 200 employees, they paid nearly $10,000 toward family premiums in 2026. Smaller firms are often more beholden to insurance companies, since they don't wield the same bargaining power as larger firms.

Mounting health costs might be part of why consumers feel so gloomy: As wages have increased, insurance premiums have risen even faster. While wages increased 3.7% year-over-year for workers — which might look like a nice pay bump on paper — worker-paid premiums outpaced that salary growth, rising by 9%.

And over the past few years, how much workers pay for health plans has eaten up a larger share of their household income. For workers across all firms, their premium costs amounted to nearly 8% of real household median income in 2025.

Are you worried about rising health insurance costs, or already paying thousands out of pocket? Share your story with this reporter at jkaplan@businessinsider.com.

All of that comes as employers and workers brace for open enrollment season, and more hikes loom: An analysis from PricewaterhouseCoopers, based on a survey of health plan actuaries, projects that commercial healthcare group costs will rise by 9% in 2027. Similarly, Aon, an insurance management firm, found that employer healthcare costs are projected to climb by 9.5% next year without any cost mitigation measures — meaning before firms figure out how to pass some of those mounting costs on to their workers.

For workers and firms, that means a tighter financial squeeze: Companies are paying more to cover their workers, but costs are likely still outpacing wages. At the same time, firms might not be able to provide higher wages as care costs climb. It means that everyone is paying more, and nobody's feeling good about it: An Ipsos/Axios poll found that 69% of Americans say a 10% increase would negatively impact their household finances, with 30% saying it would have a major negative impact.

• Social Security's 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment exceeds recent job stayers' wage growth.
• Economist Aaron Terrazas warns inflation could drive economic inequality.
• Baby boomers are helping to prop up the economy, as they're in their core retirement spending years.

There's an income premium for job switchers — and for retirees.

The Social Security Administration recently released the cost-of-living adjustment for next year. About 72 million recipients will experience a 3.6% increase in their benefits in January, higher than the September three-month moving average year-over-year median wage growth for job stayers at 3.4%.

Independent economist Aaron Terrazas said cost-of-living increases for Social Security beneficiaries were higher than job-stayers' increases in three of the past six years, the most recent being the 8.7% 2023 increase announced in 2022 amid the post-pandemic inflation spike.

"Retiree income is adjusted with the cost of living, whereas people who are working are mostly compensated according to the cost of labor," Terrazas said. "For most of the past decades, we've been in a low inflation labor shortage world, so that's worked out in workers' favor, but it feels like that's shifting underneath the surface."

The headline consumer price index increased 3.7% from a year ago in September, moving away from the Fed's 2% inflation target but down from the high rates back in 2022. The Social Security Administration bases the annual cost-of-living adjustment on the average of a related inflation rate during the third quarter of each year.

"Indexing incomes to the cost of living rather than cost of labor is a big part of what fueled inflation, the wage-price spiral in the 1970s," Terrazas said. "We moved away from that practice for most of the workforce, but not for retirees. With the growing share of Americans in their retiring years, more and more consumers are, whether we want it or not, having their incomes indexed to inflation rather than the cost of labor."

This, Terrazas thinks, could continue to drive the K-shaped economy of the haves and the have-nots, as he said older consumers are driving an outsize share of spending, although that could change as boomers start to age out of the peak retirement spending years.

"Baby boomers are in their core retirement spending years," he said. "When we think about consumer trends and what's holding up the economy, that is something we can't forget — that once people reach their 80s, we should expect that spending to start to contract as people become homebound."

Meanwhile, the three-month moving average for job switchers was higher than for job stayers and higher than the announced COLA, so job-hopping could be better than job-staying if you prioritize earning more. The problem is that it may be hard to find a new opportunity, depending on where you're looking. White-collar fields have been experiencing job loss, and employment levels in the leisure and hospitality sector have been pretty volatile.

The US has spent the last couple of years in a low-hire, low-fire period: Layoffs are low, so if you have a job, you're likely doing OK, but job openings and hiring have also been anemic, making an ominous situation for job seekers.

While that means employees may be more secure if they have a job, it also means employers don't have to do a lot to convince people to stay. Some workers have turned to "loud working" to try to make sure their accomplishments are being heard internally at their company or externally via LinkedIn or other platforms, whether that be because of fear of job cuts, to make the case for a raise, or some other reason.

"It's tough, I think, for job seekers to see headlines when we get the jobs report that unemployment is low, we're continuing to create jobs, but it's something very different from what they're feeling," Terrazas said. "And so I think it is important for them to understand that message that they're not alone. Many people, especially in white-collar work, are struggling to find new jobs or struggling to stay afloat in their workplaces."

• France's cost-of-living protests descended into violence and looting over the weekend.
• Hundreds of thousands demonstrated amid growing anger over the cost of living and public services.
• From soaring energy prices to declining incomes, five figures help explain the unrest.

France's growing anger over the cost of living erupted into scenes of looting and violence over the weekend.

While most of the hundreds of thousands of people who demonstrated across the country did so peacefully, clashes broke out between police and some protesters, with officers firing tear gas.

The unrest began as student protests over worsening school conditions, but has since grown into a broader movement fueled by frustration over the unaffordability of life in France.

The financial pressures facing French households are familiar to Americans: surging energy prices, wages struggling to keep pace with inflation, and the difficulty of making ends meet.

Here are four numbers that help explain the financial frustrations driving the protests.

1. The poverty rate is at a 30-year high

INSEE defines monetary poverty as having a standard of living below 60% of the national median, adjusted for household size. In 2024, that threshold was €1,337 a month for someone living alone.

France's monetary poverty rate stood at 15.4% in 2024, its highest level since annual records began in 1996, according to INSEE data published in July. The figures are the latest available because calculating poverty rates requires detailed tax and benefits records, which take time to compile and analyze.

That means around 9.8 million people in mainland France were living below the poverty line.

2. Energy prices are up more than 60% since 2015

It's not just Americans who are grappling with rising energy costs.

Energy prices in France increased by more than 60% between 2015 and the first half of 2026, according to INSEE. Electricity prices rose 43% over that period, while fuel prices were 31% higher at the end of 2025 than in 2015.

As with much of the world, the war in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz crisis sent fuel prices soaring. By April 2026, fuel prices in France were 30% higher than at the end of 2025, per the INSEE report.

Rising fuel costs were behind French protests in September, and members of that movement have joined students and trade unions in the riots over the past week.

3. Nearly 3 in 10 French people can't afford unexpected expenses

Data from Eurostat, the European Union's statistics agency, shows that 28.8% of people in France lived in households that couldn't afford an unexpected expense without borrowing or seeking financial help in 2025.

France isn't particularly unusual in the wider European context — the EU average was also around 29% — but the figures illustrate the financial insecurity facing almost a third of households as people protest over the cost of living.

4. More than 40% of French people experienced some difficulty making ends meet

More than four in 10 people in France (41.1%) lived in households that reported at least some difficulty making ends meet in 2025, according to Eurostat data.

Of those, 19.4% reported some difficulty, 13.7% reported difficulty, and 8% reported great difficulty, highlighting the widespread financial strain facing French households.

• France wasn't alone this weekend.
• Civil unrest occurred in several European cities this weekend.
• Protests over the high cost of living devolved into riots.

Demonstrators took to the streets across multiple European cities and capitals this weekend to protest the high cost of living in their countries.

Though the violence in Paris and other French cities claimed the headlines, thousands also showed up in Portugal, Italy, and Belgium. Demonstrators were arrested in large numbers — many people were seen in photos and videos clashing violently with police and looting local businesses.

Energy price hikes, caused at least in part by the US-Israeli war with Iran and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, have contributed to the rising prices. Other demonstrations in Belgium and France were begun by students and have since snowballed into larger-scale demonstrations, involving union workers and other organizations.

Here's a look at the chaos that unfolded across the Atlantic this weekend, where peaceful protests eventually devolved into riots and looting.

Lisbon

In Lisbon, Portugal's capital, people took to the streets on October 17 to protest the cost-of-living crisis, low wages, and unaffordable housing.

The demonstration, which was organized by the CGTP, Portugal's largest trade union federation, was also held in Porto and Coimbra. In all, the union said "thousands of workers" took part.

About 12.7% of the population in Portugal lives in overcrowded households.

Housing prices in Portugal recorded the largest annual increase of any EU member state in the second quarter of 2026, rising 16.5%. In Lisbon, the average rent is equivalent to 116% of the average salary, meaning it exceeds a typical monthly income by 16%.

Earlier this week, police removed a tent camp that activists had set up in Praça D. João I, a central public square in Porto, to draw attention to rising housing costs.

Brussels

In Belgium, students have held demonstrations in recent weeks over rising education costs, some of which turned violent over the weekend.

Video footage showed police using water cannons and tear gas during clashes with protesters in Brussels.

Belgian interior minister Bernard Quintin said in a post on X on Saturday that "what is unfolding in Brussels is no longer mere protest" and "all necessary means will be used to restore order in the face of the rioters."

Clashes also took place in Liège. Police arrested 195 people across the two cities during Saturday's protests, per The Brussels Times.

Milan

In Milan, a demonstration over the weekend against wars and the rising cost of living also descended into clashes between protesters and police.

Photos showed chaotic scenes around Piazza del Duomo, the landmark central square outside the Milan Cathedral and one of the city's busiest tourist areas, with looters damaging shop fronts and setting objects on fire.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the violence in a post on X on Sunday.

"Thugs who exploit demonstrations to sow chaos, attack those who ensure security, and hold entire cities hostage," she wrote. "Demonstrating is a right. Setting our cities ablaze is not."

The demonstrations were also held in other cities across northern Italy. Police estimates reported by Rai News, Italy's public broadcaster put turnout at about 5,000 in Milan, 3,000 in Turin, 2,000 in Bologna, 600 in Brescia, and 800 in Bergamo.

Italy's annual inflation rate jumped to 4.1% in September, up from 3.2% in August.

In Milan, home prices have also climbed: residential asking prices were 49% higher in September than in 2018, according to the property portal Immobiliare.it.