The price for the Fox Business Network Shopping Cart increased 0.2% in April to $74.46--about 6.0% more than the same 32-item grocery basket cost a year ago. At the same time, average hourly earnings rose a paltry 0.06% from March to April and 3.4% from March 2007 to March 2008. As a result, it took the average wage-earner about a minute longer to earn othe cost of the shopping basket in April than in March and seven minutes longer than it did a year ago.

The seven-minute year-year increase was the largest since the increase from September 2003 to September 2004.

The FBN Shopping Cart includes basic food items -- milk, butter, eggs, bread, meat, fruit and vegetables -- as well as fun foods, such as potato chips, chocolate chip cookies, soda, beer and ice cream. All the items are tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as part of the monthly consumer price index report.

Prices went up in April for 20 of the items on the FBN list – slightly better than March when prices increased on 22 items. But, year-over-year prices were higher in April for 27 items compared with March, when prices increased on 24 of the items.

The higher prices resulted from a variety of factors: an increase in the price of wheat, higher gasoline prices which contributed to higher transportation costs and the increasing production of ethanol, which affects foods using corn syrup as a sweetener.

Month over month, price increases were led – in percentage -- by a variety of products. The cost of a pound of broccoli rose 10.4%, a pound of butter 7.2% and flour almost 6%. On the other end of the scale, the cost of a dozen eggs dropped 6% in April followed by a 4.2% decline in the cost of a pound of sirloin steak and almost 4% for 16 ounces of beer.

Over the last year, the price of a pound of flour is up a staggering 46%, followed by the price of a dozen eggs which jumped 28%. The cost of dairy products, too, surged in the last year: a gallon of milk cost 21% more than it did a year ago (the actual price of a gallon of milk rivals that of a gallon of gasoline: $3.80 for the milk, $3.60 for a gallon of regular gasoline in April) and a half-gallon of ice cream costs almost 11% more. Along with the increase in the cost of flour, the cost of a pound of pasta rose 20.5% in the last year and a pound of white bread is 14% more expensive.

A lot of basic foods cost more, too: bananas are up 21% in the last year, the cost of a pound of peanut butter is up 13.4%, potato chips are 11.6% more expensive and a two-gallon bottle of non-diet soda is up more than 10%. The year-year “bargains” are lettuce, down 8.5%; sirloin steak, down 4.7%; round roast, down 4%, and grapefruit, down 0.5%.

The prices of some “comfort foods” remained relatively modest: the cost of a pound of chocolate chip cookies was up just 5 cents, or 1.7%, in the past month and just 10 cents, or less than 4%, in the past year, while the cost of 16 ounces of beer dropped 4 cents in April and is up just 1 cent since April 2007.

[Fox Business Intern Adam Samson contributed to this report.]

Mark Lieberman is the senior economist for the Fox Business Network. Prior to joining FOX, he served as first vice president at Washington Mutual, where he was manager of economic analysis and research. Before that, he served as senior vice president at Dime Savings Bank of New York (which was later acquired by Washington Mutual), where he specialized in credit and risk management. He has a degree in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.