Rent Spending Up 10.8%, Gasoline Down 5.4%: What the BLS 2025 Consumer Expenditure Data Means for Employee Reward Choices
On October 29 the Bureau of Labor Statistics published its annual Consumer Expenditure Survey for 2025. The average U.S. household spent $81,905, 4.3% more than in 2024, while prices rose 2.6%. Shelter and groceries took the biggest dollar increases, gasoline fell, and entertainment jumped. For anyone choosing which gift cards and rewards to offer employees, it is the most detailed public picture of where pay actually goes.
What BLS published
The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) is run for BLS by the Census Bureau and is the source of the spending weights behind the Consumer Price Index. It counts “consumer units”, roughly households: about 138 million of them in 2025, up 1.6%. The annual release breaks spending into food, housing, transportation, healthcare, entertainment and other categories, with income quintiles alongside.
Spending grew faster than prices. Average outlays rose 4.3% against a 2.6% rise in the CPI-U, so real spending grew by about 1.7% (our approximation: 1.043 ÷ 1.026). Income before taxes grew faster still, at 6.4%. BLS tested which changes are statistically significant: food (4.6%), housing (5.8%), shelter (8.0%), utilities (4.1%), health insurance (6.3%) and gasoline (−5.4%) passed; several large-looking moves, including entertainment, did not.
| Category | 2024 | 2025 | Change | Per month, 2025 (our division) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food at home (groceries) | $6,224 | $6,491 | +4.3% | $541 |
| Food away from home (restaurants) | $3,945 | $4,142 | +5.0% | $345 |
| Shelter | $16,317 | $17,626 | +8.0%* | $1,469 |
| Gasoline and other fuels | $2,645 | $2,503 | −5.4%* | $209 |
| Entertainment | $3,609 | $4,084 | +13.2% | $340 |
| Apparel and services | $2,001 | $2,010 | +0.4% | $168 |
| Healthcare | $6,197 | $6,470 | +4.4% | $539 |
| Cash contributions | $2,292 | $2,237 | −2.4% | $186 |
| All spending | $78,527 | $81,905 | +4.3%* | $6,825 |
* Flagged by BLS as a statistically significant change. Monthly figures are the annual amount divided by 12, rounded; they are our arithmetic, not BLS estimates.
Where the extra $3,378 went
Of the $3,378 rise in average spending, shelter alone accounted for $1,309, driven by rented dwellings (+10.8%). Food added $464, with meats, poultry, fish and eggs up 11.7%. Entertainment added $475. Gasoline went the other way, down $142. The result is a budget that is more concentrated on essentials: housing at 33.9% of the total, transportation 16.5%, food 13.0%, and personal insurance and pensions 12.4%. Entertainment is 5.0% and apparel 2.5%.
The spread by income is wide. The lowest fifth of households spent $37,935 on average incomes of $18,125; the highest fifth spent $159,512 on $286,188. A frontline team and a leadership team in the same company can sit at opposite ends of that range, which is one reason a single reward brand rarely suits everyone.
“BLS expects estimates of 2025 spending will be accurate with increased variances due to the smaller sample size.”
— U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, note on the 2025 federal government shutdown's impact on the Consumer Expenditure Surveys
What it means for the rewards you offer
- Weight the catalog toward everyday spending. Groceries average about $125 a week per household (our division of $6,491 by 52), so a $50 grocery card covers roughly 40% of a week's food shopping. That is a reward people feel immediately, at a time when food and rent took the largest dollar increases.
- Do not drop the fun options. Entertainment spending rose 13.2% to about $340 a month, so experiences, streaming and gaming cards still match how many people spend. A broad reward catalog lets the recipient choose instead of HR guessing.
- Fuel cards are worth less than they were. With gasoline spending down 5.4% to about $209 a month, a $25 fuel card is about 12% of a typical month's fill-ups. Still useful for drivers and field staff, less so as a default.
- Size awards against real costs, then add tax. In the US, gift cards are cash equivalents and taxable wages; the gift card tax gross-up calculator shows what it costs to deliver a $50 card net. For the wider picture, see whether gift cards are taxable to employees.
Quick questions
Is this survey about employees? No. It covers all U.S. consumer units, including retirees and people not in work. It is still the best public benchmark of how a typical household's money is split, which is the question a reward catalog has to answer.
Did people get richer or poorer? On these averages, slightly richer: income rose 6.4% and spending 4.3%, both above the 2.6% CPI-U change. That contrasts with the third-quarter Employment Cost Index, which showed private wages falling 0.6% after inflation in the year to September 2026. The two measure different things and different periods: CE is calendar 2025 household income from all sources, ECI is the employer cost of the same jobs over the latest twelve months.
Where can I see what employees actually prefer? Spending data shows where money goes, not what people want to be given. Our guide to personalizing employee rewards and the gift card statistics for 2026 cover preference surveys.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Consumer Expenditures — 2025” (October 29, 2026), the primary source. Average spending and income, the CPI-U change, significance flags, category changes and shares (Table 2), category dollar amounts (Table 1), income quintiles (Table 3), number of consumer units, and the notes on the funding lapse and standard errors. bls.gov (summary) · bls.gov (full release with tables)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Consumer Expenditures — 2024” (December 19, 2025). The originally published 2024 figure of $78,535 and the 2024 category amounts used for comparison. bls.gov
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “2025 Federal Government Shutdown Impact on the Consumer Expenditure Surveys”. The collection dates, the weighting method and the quoted sentence. bls.gov
This article summarizes official U.S. consumer spending statistics for general information. It is not tax, legal or compensation advice. Check reward and payroll-tax decisions with your own advisers.
About the author
Maciej has worked in the digital gift card and rewards industry for over 5 years. For this story he read the BLS Consumer Expenditures 2025 release and its three tables, compared them with the December 2025 release for 2024, and read BLS's note on the shutdown data gap. He worked out the monthly and weekly amounts and the gift card examples.