Wales’ wages among the lowest in UK
If you look at your pay packet each month and think you could be earning more if you lived in England you might well be right.
The weakness of the Welsh economy compared to other parts of the UK is laid bare in figures which show just how bad average wages are in Wales.
Average (median) gross pay in Wales stood last year at just £21,500, compared with £23,154 in Scotland, £23,743 in England, £29,666 in London and a UK figure of £23,474.
Only two parts of the UK - Yorkshire and the Humber and Northern Ireland - had lower earnings than Wales.
A leading Welsh anti-poverty campaigner said the findings showed “London and the south-east of England are growing at the expense of the rest of the UK”. The research has also fed concerns that low incomes are linked to a lack of skills.
The findings from the Office for National Statistics do more than show how bad pay is in Wales. The weak performance of the economy is also reflected in the low level of public sector revenues (mainly taxes) generated in Wales.
Wales had the lowest figure per head of population in the whole of the UK - £8,371 - while London had the highest at £16,545.
However Wales benefits from one of the highest levels of public expenditure per head in the UK (£12,623) although this is less than in London (£12,847), Scotland (£13,237) and Northern Ireland.
The ONS identified £39.3bn of public expenditure in Wales for the financial year ending in 2017. By far the biggest investments were in social protection (£14.6bn) and health £7bn.
Victoria Winckler, director of the Bevan Foundation, argued the figures show why a new approach to the economy is needed.
She said: “These statistics tell two stories, really. The first story is that public spending in Scotland, Northern Ireland and to a lesser extent Wales exceeds their contribution to public finances.
“I can almost hear the howls of protest about how England - or rather the southeast and London - subsidises the devolved countries. That’s true but it’s a view that takes no account of the very different levels of need across the UK.
“I would argue it is a duty of government to ensure everyone has a fair share of the national cake - and that means a fair share across countries and regions, not just ‘you get out what you put in’.
“The second story is much less likely to get an airing, and that is that London and the south-east of England are growing at the expense of the rest of the UK. Of course it has massive tax receipts - because that’s where so many major businesses are headquartered and where Britain’s wealthiest people live.
“A decent regional industrial policy to spread the benefits of the economy to all people and all parts of the UK is long overdue.”
Catherine Fookes, director of the Women’s Equality Network in Wales, said: “These figures show that incomes in Wales are generally lower than other UK regions and nations and we know that women are more likely to be in part time and lowerpaid jobs than men.
“There is also a gender pay gap in Wales of 15% and since 2010 cuts to public spending on social security payments and public services have impacted mainly on women.”