With inflation running at 10.7% in the penultimate month of the year, it is not difficult to see why so many nurses and teachers have found themselves struggling to pay food and energy bills, while an increasing number queue at a food bank.
The Office for National Statistics said private sector pay increased by 7.2%, before adjusting for inflation, while the equivalent figure for the public sector was a meagre rise of 3.3% in the three months to the end of November.
Not that private sector workers should consider themselves lucky when their pay relative to inflation is also falling. The 7.2% average increase for the sector also disguises pay disparities between professions, with those working in finance and business services such as accountancy, management consultancy and commercial law averaging 7.6%.
Across manufacturing and construction, where a shortage of workers is supposed to be boosting wages for new starters, pay growth fell well short of the consumer prices index (CPI) at 5.4% and 6.3% respectively.
Poverty used to be largely restricted to those without a job. In the two decades before the 2008 financial crisis, wages consistently outpaced inflation, improving living standards. In the decade since George Osborne and David Cameron’s austerity measures began to take effect, a 21st-century version of the Victorian working poor has emerged, especially in the public sector.
Analysis @theGrauniad
The Office for National Statistics said private sector pay increased by 7.2%, before adjusting for inflation, while the equivalent figure for the public sector was a meagre rise of 3.3% in the three months to the end of November.
Not that private sector workers should consider themselves lucky when their pay relative to inflation is also falling. The 7.2% average increase for the sector also disguises pay disparities between professions, with those working in finance and business services such as accountancy, management consultancy and commercial law averaging 7.6%.
Across manufacturing and construction, where a shortage of workers is supposed to be boosting wages for new starters, pay growth fell well short of the consumer prices index (CPI) at 5.4% and 6.3% respectively.
Poverty used to be largely restricted to those without a job. In the two decades before the 2008 financial crisis, wages consistently outpaced inflation, improving living standards. In the decade since George Osborne and David Cameron’s austerity measures began to take effect, a 21st-century version of the Victorian working poor has emerged, especially in the public sector.
Analysis @theGrauniad
