New data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) has confirmed that pay in Britain under this Tory-led coalition government is now officially falling. The ONS figures released in August shows that wages, including bonuses, fell during the April-June quarter by 0.2%. Even if you remove the bonuses element, wages only went up by 0.6% – the worst figures since the ONS begun compiling these records back in 2001.
New data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) has confirmed that pay in Britain under this Tory-led coalition government is now officially falling. The ONS figures released in August shows that wages, including bonuses, fell during the April-June quarter by 0.2%. Even if you remove the bonuses element, wages only went up by 0.6% – the worst figures since the ONS begun compiling these records back in 2001.
According to John Philpott, from the Jobs Economist consultancy, workers are suffering “Paymageddon” as wages go into reverse: “Good news for the jobless is being offset by ever slimmer pickings for those already in work, giving the UK labour market a distinctly bittersweet flavour.” (Guardian, 14th August 2014) It should be noted that this “good news” for the unemployed represents a rise in low-paid dead-end jobs, together with a continued fiddling of the real unemployed figures. In London, the number of jobs classified as being low-paid with poverty wages has increased by 45,000 (covering 2013) which represents the forth such annual increase in succession.
Wages have been stagnant for years now with no end in sight. Workers have taken pay freezes and even pay cuts to avoid losing their jobs. Others have been forced to take part-time or so-called “self-employment” work to make end meet as the Tories cut benefits to fund bailouts for bankers.
As Frances Grady from the TUC put it: “Self-employment has been responsible for almost half of the rise in employment over the last year. The fact that self-employed workers generally earn less than employees means our pay crisis is even deeper than previously thought, as their pay is not recorded in official figures.” (TUC, 14th August 2014)
The pressure is growing. Each year the mass of workers are facing a brutal decline in their living standards as inflation outpaces pay. The rise in housing costs has only made the situation even worse. According to the Daily Mirror (3rd August 2014), earning levels have suffered the biggest fall during the lifetime of this government since those recorded in 1980 when unemployment spiralled under the Thatcher government.
The Bank of England has now cut its estimates on expected pay rises to 1.25% for the next year with inflation set to remain above this. Given the precarious nature of the world economy and the flimsy set of criteria driving Osborne’s “recovery,” the Bank of England estimates may prove to be over-optimistic.
This is the reality of life in Britain under the Coalition – under capitalism. This is why we fight for socialism.
