Rising prices cause regular pay to fall at the fastest rate in a decade.
When rising prices are taken into account, regular pay is falling at the fastest rate in more than a decade, according to the Office for National Statistics.
When adjusted for inflation, pay excluding bonuses fell 2.2 percent between February and April, according to the ONS.
Household budgets in the United Kingdom are being squeezed by record fuel and energy prices.
However, pay, including bonuses, is outpacing price increases, rising by 0.4 percent when inflation is factored in.
According to Sam Beckett, the ONS’s head of economic statistics, a “high level of bonuses” is continuing to “cushion the effects of rising prices on total earnings for some workers.”
“However, if bonuses are excluded, pay in real money.”
“However, excluding bonuses, real pay is falling at the fastest rate in over a decade,” she added.
The latest figures, according to Chancellor Rishi Sunak, show that the UK’s job market “remains robust,” with redundancies at an all-time low.
“Helping people into work is the best way to support families in the long run,” he says, adding that “we are continuing to support people into new and better jobs.”
Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth, on the other hand, charged ministers with “utter complacency about the huge levels of economic inactivity.”
When adjusted for inflation, regular pay has fallen by about 1.6 percent in the private sector and 4.5 percent in the public sector.
