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North East workers facing their seventh consecutive year of wage cuts

Workers in the North East would be over £55 a week better off if real wage growth had remained at its pre-recession rate, according to new analysis published by the TUC today (Thursday).

The analysis shows that even using the government’s preferred inflation measure (The consumer prices index), which excludes housing costs, workers in the region would be earning £56.70 a week more had pay had continued to rise at 1.9 per cent a year after the crash.

The TUC says the analysis shows how much working people’s living standards suffered during the recession and how pay has failed to recover during the recovery.

This is the seventh year that average weekly earnings have been falling – the longest period since records began in the 1850s, says the TUC.

Last month Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said that average weekly earnings have fallen by around 10 per cent in real terms since the financial crisis.

The TUC analysis highlights how much better off working people would be if real wages had risen at their pre-recession rate.

Northern TUC Regional Secretary Beth Farhat said: “The North East’s workers would be nearly £3,000 a year better off had wage growth remained at its modest pre-recession rate.

“Instead, pay has fallen off a cliff and shows little sign of recovering any time soon.

Ordinary households are not sharing in the recovery and are facing their seventh consecutive year of real wage cuts.

“People are increasingly being forced to use their credit cards and dwindling savings to make ends meet, and unless the North East gets a pay rise soon the region’s personal debt problem will get even worse.

“That’s why people from across the North East will be coming to London on Saturday for our Britain Needs a Pay Rise march and rally.

“We’re following this up next month with a regional event in Newcastle during National living wage week in November to keep the issue of poverty pay at the top of the region’s agenda.

“We do not want the North East to be regarded as ‘a low pay region’ and we want to see more and better jobs created and invested in.”

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