UK workers missing out on £4,000 as pay squeeze bites
Workers in the UK could be making an extra £76 ($100) per week in pay if the country’s growth had kept pace with the OECD average since 2007, according to a trade union.
Analysis by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) shows that if the UK had kept pace with the OECD average since the financial crisis, the typical UK worker’s pay packet would be worth £4,000 more today.
But instead, the average real wage has fallen by £950 since 2007 due to an average annual growth rate of -0.2%.
The UK is one of just 7 out of 33 OECD countries where real pay growth since 2007 is negative.
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The trade union said wages in the UK are now worth less than they were before the financial crisis
The UK is currently in 29th place out of 33 OECD nations in terms of average pay growth.
Even some of the countries that were hardest hit by the financial crisis have done better than the UK, such as Ireland (0.7%), Iceland (0.5%) and Portugal (0.4%).
The union body is calling on the government to get wages rising and help families with the soaring cost of living.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Over the last decade, workers in most of the world got a pay rise. But here in the UK, wages are now worth less than they were before the financial crisis. Everything’s going up — but wages.
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“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.”
The TUC has called for the chancellor to boost the minimum wage to at least £10 an hour for all workers, fund “decent pay rises” to all public service workers to match the cost of living, and improve support for families facing rising energy costs.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak will deliver his spring statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday 23 March.
