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The UK’s Downward Mobility

By Paperstone on April 19, 2013 in Office Workers

Food handouts for the unemployed

Many workers in the UK are stuck with the wages they earned a decade ago, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). UK salaries peaked in 2009, and since then, pay has fallen by 3% in real terms, if inflation is taken into account.

Workers in London have done slightly better than the national average, and public sector workers have not suffered as much as those in the private sector.

“Official figures now confirm what everyone knows. Living standards have been falling for the vast majority, and there is no sign of change,” Frances O’Grady, the TUC’s general secretary, said this week.

The statistics reveal that average pay in 2009 was £12.25 an hour. After adjusting for inflation, it fell to £11.92 in 2010 and £11.41 in 2011.

And another report by the Resolution Foundation think tank suggests that if incomes now rise by just over 1% above inflation, it will take until 2023 for people to regain the living standards they had in 2008, when the recession began.

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