Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Gloomy prospect ahead for wages

The TUC is warning that workers will have to wait until 2024 before they make up lost ground and see their pay recover to pre-crisis levels.

TUC research says the real value of the average full-time employee wage fell by £487 in 2014 and has fallen by £2,509 since 2010 – a decline of about £50 a week.

Frances O’Grady, the TUC’s general secretary, said: “What is clear is that it will take a decade for wages to catch up in real terms to where they were before the crash. There are a lot of people who are now dipping into their savings – or, worse, getting into debt, to try to maintain a standard of living.”


According to the government’s independent forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility, George Osborne’s economic plans mean “a very sharp spending squeeze”, with 60% of the cuts to fall in the next parliament. Osborne’s hopes to cut government spending to levels last seen in the 1930s. O’Grady said. “This is really punishing the poor.”

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