The workers who buy trucks can no longer afford them. Here’s what the data shows.

The full-size pickup truck has always been more than just a vehicle. For electricians, contractors, factory workers, and drivers, it’s a professional tool — and often the biggest purchase they’ll make outside of a home. For decades, a mid-tier truck was attainable on a blue collar income. That’s no longer the case.

A new CarEdge analysis of truck pricing and the most recent U.S. wage data finds that between 2014 and 2024, the average mid-tier full-size truck climbed 53.1% in price — while the average blue collar wage grew just 38.7%. Truck prices are rising nearly 40% faster than the paychecks of the workers most likely to buy them.

Read the full CarEdge Truck Price Inflation Report →

The Numbers

In 2014, the five trucks in our study averaged $36,808. By 2024, that average had reached $55,671 — an increase of nearly $19,000 in ten years. To put that in perspective: the entire base price of the most affordable truck in the study in 2014 is now less than the price increase on the most expensive model alone.

By 2023, something happened that had never happened before: the average truck price hit 1.00x the average annual blue collar wage. For the first time on record, buying a new truck meant spending an entire year’s gross salary.

Occupational wage statistics for 2025 are expected to be released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the summer of 2026. CarEdge will run the numbers again with the latest figures when we have the update.

Who’s Feeling It Most

Not all blue collar workers are in the same position. Construction and extraction workers — among the higher earners in the group at $63,920 annually — now need about 10.5 months of gross pay to afford the average truck, up from 9.5 months in 2014.

Production and transportation workers have it worse. Earning between $48,000 and $50,000 a year, these workers now need more than 13 months of gross income to cover the average truck price — and that’s before taxes, rent, or any other expense.

How We Got Here

The pandemic accelerated an affordability crisis that was already underway. Between 2021 and 2023, the five-truck average surged nearly $10,000 in just two years as semiconductor shortages collapsed inventory and manufacturers prioritized their most profitable high-trim models. Prices spiked — and never came back down.

But the pandemic wasn’t the whole story. Automakers had been quietly walking away from the blue collar buyer for years. The number of new vehicle models priced under $25,000 dropped from 36 in 2017 to just 10 five years later. Entry-level truck trims became nearly impossible to find on dealer lots by design.

Then came the EV losses. Ford expects to continue losing billions on EVs for years to come. GM took roughly $6 billion in EV-related write-downs. Those losses were largely offset by charging more for the gas-powered trucks that actually sell. The workers who buy F-150s effectively subsidized a failed industry bet.

What Buyers Can Do

New-car prices in 2024 were still 29% higher than in 2019, and CarEdge projects trucks and SUVs will rise another 3–5% in 2026 — before any tariff impact on imported components. Relief isn’t coming soon. But there are ways to fight back.

Shop leftover 2025 models. Ford and Ram are heading into 2026 with tens of thousands of unsold 2025 trucks on dealer lots. That’s leverage. Dealers are motivated to move aging inventory, and buyers who target outgoing model-year trucks can often negotiate well below MSRP — sometimes thousands under sticker. The longer those trucks sit, the more room there is to negotiate.

Know the dealer’s cost before you walk in. CarEdge’s free dealer invoice tool shows you what the dealer actually paid for the truck — not what they’re asking for it. That number is your anchor. Any negotiation should start there, not at MSRP.

Have AI negotiate aging inventory for you. CarEdge Pro gives you access to target discount recommendations, market pricing data, and a step-by-step negotiation guide so you know exactly what to say — and what to push back on — at every stage of the deal.

Consider the used and CPO market. Certified pre-owned trucks from the last two to three years still offer strong capability at a meaningfully lower price point. With new truck prices near historic highs, a lightly used model can represent significant savings without sacrificing much in terms of condition or features.

Look at mid-size alternatives. For buyers whose work doesn’t require a full-size bed or towing capacity, mid-size trucks offer real utility at a significantly lower price point — and are usually easier to negotiate on.

Explore the full CarEdge Truck Price Inflation Report, including all data and methodology →

CarEdge analyzed base MSRP data for five best-selling full-size trucks cross-referenced against Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data for four blue collar occupational sectors, covering 2014–2024. Full methodology available at caredge.com/truck-price-inflation-2026.