Pay squeeze hits millions

Families worse off in real terms

WAGES are rising slower than living costs for millions of families, figures have revealed.

The average worker saw their pay, excluding any bonus, rise 2.2% year on year last month.

That was less than inflation, which increased 2.3%.

Experts predict the squeeze will lead to families tightening their belts and spending less, hammering the wider economy which has been propped up by consumer spending.

It comes despite unemployment falling to its lowest in a decade.

The jobless total fell by 45,000 to 1.56 million in the three months to February, said the Office for National Statistics.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “We now need urgent action to stop another living standards crisis.”

The GMB union said a Government cap of 1% on wage increases means the average full-time public sector worker has lost out to the tune of £9,000 since 2010.

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said: “Workers are now suffering a real fall in living standards.

This is not a claim, it is a fact, and the blame lies firmly at the doors of Downing Street.

The economy has been kept on the life support machine of consumer credit, but people are now clearly in the vice-like grip of a Brexit squeeze.”

The number of people in work continued to increase – up by 39,000 on the latest quarter to 31.8 million, giving an employment rate of 74.6%, the joint highest since records began in 1971.

Vacancies were up by 16,000 to a record 767,000.