WAGING WAR ON WORKING DADS
Low pay scandal as fathers’ wages grow by 0.3% a year since 2002
WORKING dads have seen almost no growth in their wages for the past 15 years according to a shocking report on Britain’s low-pay scandal.
The study of family earnings shows that, over the past two decades, the growth in earnings of working dads has been a paltry 0.3 per cent a year.
Working mothers’ earnings have grown by more than two per cent a year over the same period.
The gap means that it is becoming increasingly difficult for families with only the father working to make ends meet.
These are some of the findings from the Institute for Fiscal Studies report released today, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Jonathan Cribb, an economist and author of the IFS report, said: “With men’s earnings growing so slowly over the past 20 years, it has become increasingly hard for families dependent on the father’s earnings alone to keep up with other families.
“The average incomes of one-earner couples with children have not grown at all since the early 2000s.
“The only reason that they are any higher than in the mid-90s is the greater generosity of benefits and tax credits. This matters. Around a quarter of children live in a one-earner couple family – about the same proportion as 20 years ago.”
The incomes of two-earner families are 10 per cent higher than in 2002-03.
The report found that the average earnings of a working father in a one-earner couple are six per cent lower in real terms than in 1994-95.
The IFS said fathers in one-earner couples are less likely than other fathers to be in well-paid professional or managerial jobs.
Helen Barnard of the JRF said: “These figures show that families with a single breadwinner are under increasing strain and have become much more vulnerable to poverty.
“Ensuring families can keep more of their earnings, driving up the number of good jobs through the industrial strategy and ensuring parents can access good quality and affordable childcare will help ease the strain.”