British workers are facing the worst wage squeeze among leading economic nations, with pay set to drop by 6.2 per cent over the next two years in real terms.
The drop, predicted in analysis by the TUC, amounts to £1,750 and is the biggest fall in any G7 economy. Pay growth is forecast to bounce back faster in other countries.
It means that UK workers will suffer the longest and harshest pay squeeze in modern history. A previous analysis by the TUC indicated that workers lost nearly £20,000 in real earnings between 2008 and 2021 as a result of pay not keeping pace with inflation.
Years of wage stagnation have left families “brutally exposed” to Britain’s cost-of-living crisis, the TUC said in its report, which called for the next prime minister to make getting wages rising across the economy their top priority.
The TUC pointed out that Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor and current front-runner in the Tory leadership race, had committed on 20 separate occasions over the past year to a create a “high-wage economy”. General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Making ends meet shouldn’t be a battle, but UK workers are suffering the worst pay squeeze in the G7 and the longest in modern history.
“Having repeatedly promised a high-wage economy, the Conservatives have consigned Britain to the bottom of the league for pay growth. Years of standstill wages have left households brutally exposed to this cost-of-living crisis.
“The number one priority for Tory leadership candidates should be to get pay rising across the economy. This is the best way to give people long-term financial security and to stop families from lurching from crisis to crisis.”
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