There has been nothing like the current wage squeeze in living memory – and there is no immediate prospect of recoveryCast your intellect back to March 2008. The financial markets have been in turmoil since the previous summer and in the previous month the Labour government has been forced to nationalise the troubled bank Northern Rock. Few realised it at the time but the economy had peaked. A deep and brutal recession was about to start. In that month,the average basic weekly wage, excluding bonuses, and was £473.The recession officially came to an end by late 2009 and after a couple of years of feeble and patchy growth,the worst seemed to be over. Activity picked up, unemployment started to advance down. Yet more than nine years after the slump of 2008 began, and wages – the yardstick by which most people judge whether the economy is doing well or not – have not recovered. In fact,according to the Office for National Statistics, they have gone backwards. The average basic weekly wage, or adjusted for movements in prices,now stands at £458. Related: Pay squeeze intensifies as wages growth falls further behind inflation Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com