Sure, Matt. Thank you for the question. Yes, I'll first start by saying, we've always said here that the health of the consumer, this low-end consumer that we serve the most here at Dollar General, is usually geared and attached to whether they're gainfully employed or not. I'm happy to say that, with the labor market the way it is, that she is gainfully employed, working as many hours as she would like to right now. Matter of fact, we believe that approximately $1.20 increase year-over-year in her wages are in her wallet. So that is a significant amount.
Now to your point, there are some other things, other headwinds here that we watch out for. Obviously, inflation has definitely taken a toll on some of that additional wage growth that she's seen. And then recently, over the last couple of weeks, gas prices are up $0.70 a gallon. So that -- we watch that very carefully.
Now we always also said that once that gas price reaches over $4 a gallon, which it has now, that we normally see the consumers stay closer to home, which bodes very well for that value and convenient message that we have out there for our core consumer and that we deliver every day. That value and convenient message reigns supreme at the end of the day across the company here at Dollar General and with our core customer.
So again, as you think about it, tougher times for the consumer normally means that she needs us more, and we normally start to see a trade-down once that occurs and we'll be watching out for that. Again, that value and convenience really attracts that trade-in, trade-down customer.
As far as the drivers of what we believe. Well, our initiatives, Matt, as you know, have been very, very successful over the last 6 to 7 years here at Dollar General. And they're the cornerstone of why we feel confident in our guide for 2022. Obviously a lot of year ahead of us, but those initiatives are truly the cornerstone of that.
But then when you think again about that value and convenience message we have, if the market gets a little tighter from a labor perspective or inflation continues to pull more money out of the consumer's wallet, we feel that we're very well positioned as we move through '22 as well.