The Post article on the February jump in the CPI includes a chart (not on the web) showing the monthly increase in the CPI and the monthly change in real weekly wages. This juxtaposition doesn't make sense for several reasons. First, if you're comparing wage growth to inflation, then the appropriate figure is nominal wage growth, not real wage growth, which is adjusted for inflation. Second, data on average hours is extremely erratic. Changes in reported hours are far more likely to be due to errors in measurement than actual changes in hours. It would be far better to take monthly changes in the average hourly wage. Of course, monthly wage data is pretty bad also, as is monthly price data. If you really want to make a serious comparison, take quarterly changes in wages and quarterly changes in prices. This filters out most of the noise, increasing the probability that what you are seeing on the chart is real. (And, if you've read to this point, you now get the answer -- average hourly wages have increased at a 4.1 percent annual rate over the last quarter, slightly better than the 4.0 percent rate of inflation.)
--Dean Baker