You are a public relations advisor for local firefighters who are threatening to strike on the grounds that since 2000 the city council hasn't given a real raise. The mayor retorts that the median salary for firefighters in 2000 was $32,500, and that today the median salary is $43,500, a raise of $11,000. You want to attack that argument by accounting for the effects of inflation (CPI in 2000 was 172.2 and today it's 233.9). So how much additional buying power -- if any -- do firefighters at the median salary have today as compared to 14 years ago?

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