In 1989, the Observer peeped into pay packets at a time when Britain was ‘more unequal than 100 years ago during the reign of Victoria’. Though the gap between high and low earners was huge, it was almost reasonable by 2024’s grotesque standards. A highest-paid jobs list topped out at £1.34m and featured famous 80s names, such as the Saatchi brothers on £650,000 each and Gerald Ratner earning £495,000.
At the other end of the wage scale, Beryl worked as a cuff-examiner in a Cornwall shirt factory, clocking on at 7.35am to inspect 27,000 cuffs a week for £95. ‘It’s hard work,’ she said. ‘You’ve got to concentrate so hard that you’re really humming by the time you get home… It drives my poor husband crazy!’ Her wages were wholly spent on ‘life’s essentials’: the mortgage and groceries. ‘We don’t drink, we don’t smoke, we don’t go out.’ The factory had just announced it was moving production to Northern Ireland, which was ‘really frightening’.
