The price for the Fox Business Shopping Cart increased 0.44% in March to $74.33 --almost 6.5% more than the same 32-item grocery basket cost a year ago. At the same time, average hourly earnings increased 0.34% from February to March and 3.6% from March 2007 to March 2008.

The 6.45% year-over-year increase in the cost of the shopping cart is the steepest in three months.

In short, food prices went up significantly faster than earnings and, as a result, it took the average worker slightly longer to earn the cost of the shopping basket. At 4 hours, 10 minutes, the time necessary to work to be able to pay for the shopping basket is the longest in more than two years.

The FOX Business 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 March for 22 of the items on the grocery list – compared with February when prices increased on 16 items -- led by a 10-cent, or 5.8%, increase in the price of a pound of tomatoes and a 6-cent, or 10.6%, increase in the price of a pound of bananas. Higher grain prices drove up the cost of flour and white bread as well as chocolate chip cookies and malt beverages (beer) for the month although the cost of pasta, which had jumped more than 30% from December to February, dipped a bit in March. Prices for virtually all meat products included in the basket – also related to grain prices – all increase in March.

In addition to pasta, prices in March fell for eight items led by a drop in the cost of dairy products: milk, butter and American cheese. The average price of a half-gallon of ice cream increased. Prices also dropped for lettuce, broccoli and grapefruit.

The overall increase in prices follows a jump in import prices for food products and wholesale prices--with more to come. At the wholesale level food prices, have increased in six of the last eight months. The year-over-year increase in imported food prices--14% -- was the steepest since March 1995.

On a year-over-year basis, prices are up for all but seven of the items in the FBN basket: ham, sirloin steak, grapefruit, round roast, lettuce, sugar and butter. The sharpest increase (in dollars) was the price of a gallon of milk which jumped 71 cents or 23.1% (while the price of a gallon of gasoline increased 58.3 cents or about 21.5%); the price of dozen eggs jumped 57 cents, or 34.8%.

The prices of “comfort foods” remained relatively modest: The cost of a pound of chocolate chip cookies is up just 6 cents or 2.1% in the past year and of 16 ounces of beer up just 1 cents, less than 1%.

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