Well, not that this necessarily supports our structural (longer-term) rising inflation thesis. But, then again, wages are sticky (i.e., not easy to reduce once they’re set).
From today’s Wall Street Journal: emphasis mine…
“Some restaurant owners have said they are having to pass along some of the wage increases to customers in the form of higher prices, as other costs rise at the same time. Consumer prices for fast food in March grew 6.5% compared with last year, the biggest year-over-year increase since at least 1998, Labor Department data show.”
And, on a separate, but related, note (in terms of several other restaurant inputs), here’s the year-to-date price change for key ag commodities:
AG:
Wheat +13.37%
Corn +31.70%
Soybean +18.95%
Sugar +16.84%
OJ -8.48%
Coffee +5.04%
Cocoa -2.43%
Rough Rice +5.74%
Oats +16.21%
Milk +9.26%
Cotton +12.16%
Lumber +106.43%
Live Cattle +0.89%
Lean Hogs +27.65%