Pay worth less than in 2008 after years of stagnation says TUC

A DECADE of stagnation in council pay means many real-term wages are now worth less than they were in 2008, according to claims by the TUC.

Analysis by the union, published today, looks at real wage growth and how it might compare according to trends seen before the last financial crash.

It suggests workers would be £180 a week better off today, in twothirds of Yorkshire's local authorities.

The TUC described the findings as a “damning indictment” of the Conservatives’ economic record.

Not since Napoleonic times has there been such a sustained period of wage stagnation, the body warns.

Regional secretary Liz Blackshaw said: “Hard work should pay for everyone. But people are still worse off than in 2008 in the vast majority of Yorkshire and the Humber.

"And in every corner of the region pay growth is way below historic trends. This is a damning indictment of the Conservatives’ economic record."

When the Conservatives took office in 2010, a wage recovery was underway following the financial crisis. This was reversed, the TUC argue, under austerity programmes which saw public sector pay frozen. Such so-called “scorched earth” policies have “decimated” family budgets, claimed Ms Blackshaw.

“Just imagine how much better off people would be if they had an extra £180 a week in their pay packets – and how much more prosperous the country would be,” she said.

“It doesn’t have to be this way. We can create a new era of decent pay growth again where families’ living standards rise rather than falling backwards. But we need a new approach to get there.

“That means a proper plan to get the economy growing again by investing in UK industry, and a New Deal so that working people get a fair share of the wealth they create.”

The analysis looked at official published data for Yorkshire's local authorities, with 15 local councils providing comparable figures.

Of those 15, the TUC claims, the wages at 10 authorities are lower – in real terms – than they would be if they had risen at the pre-2008 growth rate.

The analysis is based on local authority pay data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) for the period between 1997 and 2023. Across the region as a whole, the TUC adds, the average weekly pay is still £10 a week lower.