The price for the FOX Business Network Shopping Cart increased 0.6% in May to $74.89 – about 6.0% more than the same 31-item grocery basket cost a year ago. At the same time, average hourly earnings rose about half as fast -- 0.3% -- from April to May and 3.4% from May 2007 to May 2008. As a result, it took the average wage-earner almost a full minute longer to earn the cost of the shopping basket in May than in April and nearly six minutes longer than it did a year ago.

The month-month price increase is the steepest since January when prices rose 0.7%; the year-year price increase is slightly slower than the 6.4% increase in prices from March to April.

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 May for 18 of the items on the FBN list, slightly better than April when prices increased on 20 items. In March, prices increased for 22 items. Year over year, prices were higher in May for 25 items compared with April when prices increased on 27 of the items.

BLS also reported average weekly earnings (the product of hours worked and average hourly earnings) rose to $604.58 in May from $602.89 in April (which had been down from $604.01 in March).

The higher prices resulted from a variety of factors: an increase in the price of wheat – affecting flour, beer, and chocolate chip cookies -- 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 sirloin steak (up 5.3%), apples (up 4.1%), pork chops (up 3.6%), beer (up 3.4%) and chocolate chip cookies (up 3.2%). Sirloin steak also led the list in price increases by amount: up 30¢ a pound in May.

Year-over-year, the fastest price increases were for flour (up 52%!), a dozen eggs (up 28%), spaghetti (also up 28%), bananas (up 25%) and broccoli (up 17%).

In the last month, prices dropped for eggs (7%), tomatoes (6%), broccoli (5%), lettuce (4%) and ice cream (3%).

Despite the month-month increase, sirloin steak dropped 6% in the last year, the steepest year-year decline of any of the items in the shopping cart. Prices for four other items: lettuce, grapefruit, round roast and tomatoes, dropped about 1%.

The prices were collected before the heavy flooding in the Midwest, affecting prices for corn and soybeans. U.S. corn futures hit record highs on Friday in the wake of the flooding, threatening to cut crop production as global demand increases.

July corn was up 8.25 cents at $7.62 for a quarter bushel early Friday, just under the all-time high of $7.65. There were more crop-drowning rains on parts of the Midwest on Thursday, threatening strained levees and slowing recovery from a multibillion-dollar flood disaster in the heart of the world's biggest grain and food exporter.

Prices increased as well for other grains such as soybean and wheat after the Federal Reserve said Wednesday inflation risks had increased.

The US Department of Agriculture Monday will report on June plantings and issue its quarterly stocks reports, which will detail its estimates of grain acreages in the flood-hit Midwest.

According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, the largest U.S. farm group, damage to crops from weather could top $8 billion this year, and much of that could be attributed to the flooding in several key farm states in the Midwest.

The higher cost of grain contributed to the decline in prices for sirloin steak as cattle ranchers, rushed stock to market.

[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.