Average wages would be £76-a-week higher if growth had kept pace with an international average since the financial crisis, a new study suggests. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) said its research shows the exceptional nature of the UK's "pay squeeze".
While most countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have delivered significant pay growth to their workers since the financial crisis, real wages in the UK have fallen, it was claimed. If the UK had kept pace with the OECD average since 2007, the typical UK worker's pay would be worth £4,000 more today, according to the union organisation.
The highest rates of annual real pay growth over the past 15 years have been in the Baltic states – Lithuania (3.2 per cent), Latvia (2.8 per cent) and Estonia (2.5 per cent) – followed by Poland (2.5 per cent) and Slovakia (2.0 per cent), said the TUC. These compare with growth of -0.2 per cent in the UK since 2007.
TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "Over the last decade, workers in most of the world got a pay rise, but in the UK wages are now worth less than they were before the financial crisis. Over the last 12 years, Conservative ministers chose to impose austerity, cut public sector pay, and attack workers' rights to bargain for fair pay through their trade unions.
"Now these years of weak pay growth have left millions of working families badly exposed to soaring bills and prices. Everything's going up – but wages.
"Britain needs a pay rise. The chancellor must put higher wages at the heart of his Spring Statement, and ministers must get unions and employers around the table to negotiate binding fair pay agreements in every sector of the economy to get wages rising."
It comes just days ahead of Rishi Sunak delivering his "mini-budget" in the House of Commons on Wednesday. Speaking on Sunday, the chancellor said he recognised the next few months were "not going to be easy" for households amid a cost of living squeeze but said he would "stand by" those under financial pressure.
A Treasury spokesperson said: "The unprecedented actions we've taken during the pandemic has saved millions of jobs – with unemployment predicted to have been almost three times higher than its current rate of under 4%. We're rewarding hardworking public sector workers with pay rises across the board and increasing the National Living Wage to £9.50 per hour from next month."
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.
