Saturday, July 30, 2016

TUC found that between 2007 and 2015 in the UK, real wages fell by 10.4%, the joint lowest in OECD countries

I think this is one of the real reasons for Brexit.  No wonder so many people feel angry and betrayed in the face of such a massive cut in wages. 

Employment may be relatively high but evidently most of these jobs are insecure and have rotten pay. Low skilled, low paid jobs with little or no rights for workers breed fear and resentment. 

So encouraged by populist nationalism they blamed johnny foreigner for all their ills and not the excesses and imbalances of capitalism that caused it. 

"A report by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has shown that Britain has suffered a bigger fall in real wages since the financial crisis than any other advanced country apart from Greece. The TUC said earnings in Britain have fallen by 10% since the credit crunch began in 2007. 

Using data from the OECD’s recent employment outlook, the TUC found that over the same 2007-2015 period, real wages grew in Poland by 23%, in Germany by 14%, and in France by 11%. Across OECD countries, real wages increased by an average of 6.7%. 

The TUC’s general secretary, Frances O'Grady, commented: “Wages fell off the cliff after the financial crisis, and have barely begun to recover. Working people must not foot the bill for a Brexit downturn in the way they did for the bankers’ crash.”

The Guardian, Page: 1,4 The Times, Page: 43

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