If you have experienced pain at the grocery check-out lately — and not because you still haven’t mastered ringing up your own produce — you’re not alone. In fact, according to a WalletHub study, “States Where People Spend the Most and Least on Groceries,”

Ohio shoppers spend 2.19% of the median monthly household income. That is 12th in the country, meaning there is a lot of room for improvement in the Buckeye State.

West Virginia is second only to Mississippi for the cost of groceries as a share of median monthly household income. In the Mountain State, the average spending on groceries is 2.57% of the median monthly household income. By contrast, the lowest percentage is in New Jersey, at 1.5%.

It is worth noting that in both Ohio and West Virginia, the price of a trip to the grocery store could cause those in some households to make some difficult decisions.

“While grocery prices have gone up tremendously in recent years, the states in which people spend the greatest percentage of their income on groceries actually aren’t those with the highest prices,” said WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo. “Instead, the median incomes in these states are quite low, so even with reasonable grocery prices, residents end up shelling out a higher percentage of their earnings than people in states with more expensive products.”

Of course, experts recommend combatting such challenges by making a prudent household budget, and there is certainly a place for that. But when there is too much month left at the end of the money and there are still mouths to feed, all the budgeting in the world won’t help. There must be money to budget.

Lawmakers still considering their priorities for the year must focus on efforts that support entrepreneurs and employers — large and small — in a way that lets them pay their workers enough to avoid thinking of groceries as a luxury.