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.”