Wages to 'drop by £4,000 in real terms over three years', warns TUC

Wages are to drop by £4,000 in real terms over the next three years, claimed a trade union with a warning that it will take legal action if ministers weaken workers’ rights.

UK workers are facing “two decades of lost living standards”, the country’s trade unions warned today (18), amid soaring inflation.

Following the defenestration of the mini-budget yesterday, the TUC are telling ministers they have ‘no mandate’ for cutting pay and services, after chancellor Jeremy Hunt said he faced ‘decisions of eye-watering difficulty’.

Calling Conservatives “toxic” for the economy, Trades Union Congress is calling for a proper strategy to help lift wages and improve public services is needed.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady, has warned that working families “have been pushed to breaking point” after the “longest wage squeeze since Napoleonic times”.

O’Grady has set the scene, telling Radio 4’s Today Programme that working people must not pay the price for the “absolute mess and damage that this government has caused”.

“Jeremy Hunt has slammed the gears into reverse, but an awful lot of damage has been done to livelihoods. People are worried about mortgages, worried about bills,” O’Grady said.

“We simply can’t have a case where working people end up being treated as a cash till again and again and again. Real wages have had the long squeeze on record. They’re set to fall by £4,000 again, in real terms over the next three years.

“No wonder working people are standing up and saying this government has no mandate for cutting pay or services,” he said.

TUC research has shown that dividends have been rising fast since the financial crisis, while real pay has fallen.

The economy has become skewed, O’Grady warns, and the UK needs to ensure people get fair pay and invest in public services.

"We need a change of direction from this government – but I’m afraid they are levelling down rather than levelling up," he said.