15 June 2018

New figures from the Office for National Statistics this week revealed that real wage growth has remained stagnant after years of falling behind pre-recession levels.

Nominal wage growth fell to 2.8%, while real wage growth stayed at 0.4%, adding to the financial squeeze felt by the UK's 33 million workers owing to the 4% fall in real wages over the last decade. In the decade prior (1998-2008) real wages grew by 27%.

"Wage growth is stuck in the slow lane. At this rate pay packets won't recover to their pre-recession levels for years," General Secretary of the TUC, Frances O'Grady, said.

"We need to speed things up. Extending collective bargaining would boost living standards and help workers get a fairer share of the wealth they create," she added.

"Ministers must allow unions the right to go into every workplace."

The Institute of Employment Rights agrees with her assessment. In our Manifesto for Labour Law, we recommend the reinstatement of sectoral collective bargaining to improve wages across entire industries, the protection of casual workers through a universal employment status that gives all people in employment the same rights, and stronger trade union rights to represent their members in the workplace.

These are just some of our recommendations. Click here to read more about our Manifesto for Labour Law