According to the Trades Union Congress, many average UK workers have seen £200 vanish from their bank accounts.
Average UK Workers Experience Real Wage Decline, Criticisms of Conservative Policies Arise
Pay packets have considerably shrunk in comparison with what they were back in 2008 in the majority of local authority areas, a TUC analysis has shown.
The union found that real wages, representing pay after accounting for inflation, are less than they were sixteen years ago in 212 out of 340 local areas, including towns and cities.
It estimates that if real wages had grown at their pre-crisis pace, the average UK worker would be £10,400 a year better off, which equals £200 a week.
The organisation highlights that many average UK workers are caught in the longest pay stagnation in more than 200 years and has described these results as a scathing indictment of the Tories' economic policies.
The TUC Criticizes Conservative Economic Record as Real Wages Decline
The TUC’s general secretary, Paul Nowak, declared, “This is a damning indictment of the Conservatives’ economic record.”
“This is the same government that’s given us the most dramatic fall in living standards on record. It doesn’t have to be this way. We can create a new era of decent pay growth again where families’ living standards rise rather than falling backwards,” he continued.
“The Tories’ failure to grow the economy – and their scorched-earth austerity policies – has decimated family budgets,” said Nowak. “Just imagine how much better off people would be if they had an extra £10,400 in their pay packets each year – and how much more prosperous the country would be.”
“We can create a new era of decent pay growth again where families' living standards rise rather than falling backwards. That means a proper plan to get the economy growing again by investing in UK industry, and a New Deal so that working people get a fair share of the wealth they create.”
A Treasury spokesman responded: “A global surge in inflation caused by Putin’s war in Ukraine has hit the value of wages right across the world. Despite these challenging international factors, since 2010, this government has made huge strides in ending low pay, with jumps in the value of the National Living Wage meaning the number of people in jobs classified as ‘low paid’ has halved. Additionally as part of our determination to end low pay, this month we increased the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over, putting more money in the pockets of almost 3 million workers.
“Through supporting the Bank of England and sticking to our plan, inflation is now down to 3.2% and real wages are growing. Additionally we’ve been able to cut National Insurance by a third—worth £900 a year to the average worker.”