At last, pay edges above levels it hit in pre-crash 2008

AVERAGE wages have finally edged above pre-financial crisis levels – ending a 12-year squeeze on workers.

The Office for National Statistics said pay packets adjusted for inflation are worth more than before the 2008 crash.

Following an annual rise of 1.8 per cent, average weekly earnings excluding bonuses hit £474 – £1 above the £473 pre-downturn peak of March 2008. The ONS revealed a surge in the female workforce pushed the number of people in jobs to a record high.

Sarah Coles, a personal finance analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘We lost a dozen years of wage growth to the financial crisis, but we’re finally emerging from the other side – pay is now higher than it was back in March 2008.’ Experts said the fact it has taken over a decade to reach this point highlights the toll of the financial crisis.

In many cases pay rises were wiped out by inflation, meaning workers saw the spending power of their wages fall.

Nye Cominetti, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation think-tank, said it showed ‘what a living standards disaster our pay packets have been’. Yesterday the government pointed out wages are growing significantly faster than inflation, which is boosting people’s spending power. Employment minister Mims Davies said: ‘Workers can expect their money to go further as we look ahead to a decade of renewal.’

÷ALMOST 2,000 people a day found a job in the final three months of last year – with the workforce surging by 180,000 to hit a new high of 32.93million, the ONS said.