### Instruction: The text below is from a news article. Extract causal economic narratives from this text. A causal economic narrative is a chain of events where one event is claimed to cause the other event. State all narratives strictly in the following form: '## event - "causes" - ## event'. Only extract narratives that are clearly contained in the input text.
### Input: Wage growth hit 3.2 percent a year in December, the fastest pace in nearly a decade and a sign of increasing competition for workers. While inflation eats up some of those gains, wages are growing about a percent above the cost of living for the typical American, mainly because gas prices have stayed low. Make sure your entire response is wrapped in JSON format.
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