evidence: "The big problem for most consumers is when wage increases do not keep pace with inflation, then we lose real purchasing power," said William Ferguson, the Gertrude B. Austin professor of economics at Grinnell College in Iowa. "And that’s actually what hurts people." [...] Fears of a dreaded "wage-price spiral" — when rising wages and prices feed into each other — have made a bogeyman out of wage growth. However, recent economic research from the likes of the San Francisco Fed and former Fed chair Ben Bernanke noted that wages gains have had little, and certainly not overwhelming, effects on this inflationary cycle. Wage gains "will fuel spending, and I do think it will be something that keeps a floor on inflation that’s above [the Fed’s target of] 2%, but let’s see how it evolves over time," Pelle said. "I don’t want to jump the gun and say absolutely that this is something that the Fed needs crushed."