UK Pay Rises But Not With Inflation

 Annual British pay growth stalled at 4% in May, leaving most workers with a rise in earnings worth less than half the 9% increase in prices.

Sheila Attwood, the  XperHR pay and benefits editor, said: “Despite pay awards reaching record levels not seen for 30 years, any marginal increases we are seeing are outstripped by the sheer pace of inflation.”

A letter on Friday sent to Boris Johnson by 67 economists said there was no wage-price spiral under way in Britain and keeping wages down would risk pushing the economy into a recession.

Stephen Machin, a professor at the London School of Economics, said the survey and official figures from the ONS, which showed pay rises averaging 4.2% across all sectors, revealed workers lacked the bargaining power to push up wages to match inflation.

“Bargaining power in the private sector has been especially weak in the 12 years since the financial crash. And the public sector has suffered even more, with pay deals below the equivalent agreements in the private sector,” he said.

Average UK pay rises stall at 4% – less than half the inflation rate | Pay | The Guardian