The WSJ picked up an interesting tidbit in the National Federation of Independent Business survey released today.

A net 21% of small businesses report lifting compensation in the last few months. That is the highest reading since the end of 2007, right before the Great Recession started.

The small business segment is often at the front end of pay hikes so this could be a leading indicator.

The bigger question is whether the Fed is willing to allow some wage inflation to allow workers to catch up to price rises over the past five years.