"Through it all, an exodus of workers from lower-paying jobs led companies to push up wages that had been stuck for decades.

Researchers at two Federal Reserve Banks — those based in Kansas City and New York — say this is a key driver of higher grocery prices. Pay for workers in food manufacturing and retail rose a bit faster than pay for workers in many other occupations. A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City noted that processed food, which requires more labor, accounted for the vast majority of price hikes."

This was hidden in the article and not really expanded on. Some quick Google searches said Kroger had 414k employees in 2023. On the Kroger subreddit, I saw a post saying the average raise is typically $0.40/hr every eligible raise period.

Just to baseline us a number to look at, that's 2080 x $0.40 = $832 x 414k = $344.5m in increased hourly labor costs before associated benefit cost increases.

If we know that number is on the light side due to regional differences, labor unions, tenure with bigger steps, etc... it makes sense why grocery prices have jumped on that alone. That's also just one variable in the equation -- you have likely wage increases at the manufacturer level, the supply chain and logistics level, etc.

TL;DR: Grocery prices aren't coming down any time soon, friends.

https://www.npr.org/2024/09/09/nx-s1-5103935/grocery-prices-inflation-corporate-greedflation

#inflation #wages #jobs #economics