Lower-income households across the United Kingdom are facing decades of stagnant living standards as wage growth continues to lag behind rising costs, according to new analysis from the Resolution Foundation.
The think tank found that living standards for families in the lower half of the income scale have increased by only around 0.5% per year over the past 20 years, despite more people being in work.
At that rate, incomes for these households would take more than a century to double — a sharp slowdown compared with the four decades before the mid-2000s, when incomes typically doubled in about 40 years.
The report links part of the financial strain to global energy disruptions following the Ukraine war, which drove up costs through Europe’s energy markets. As a result, UK household energy bills remain roughly 60% higher than before the conflict, while food prices are still about 40% higher.
Researchers argue the deeper issue is weak wage growth, combined with reductions in social support, which together have weakened the traditional link between employment and improving living standards. The report states many lower-income families are putting in more work without seeing meaningful financial progress.
To reverse the trend, the authors recommend government action to boost national productivity, overhaul tax and welfare systems, and implement policies aimed at reducing cost-of-living pressures. They also suggest higher workforce participation and improved efficiency across businesses and industries will be necessary to drive meaningful wage growth.
Image credit: Getty Images
All this sounds a bit like looking at a train wreck and suggesting they “fix the rails”. I’d say the UK is beyond the point where simple pedestrian solutions will make a meaningful difference. They need to start by addressing the core cause of these problems, corrupt globalist governments and their backers who are the only ones gaining anything from this vampiristic evisceration of the working and middle classes.
UK Unemployment Reaches Five-Year High
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/britain/uk-unemployment-reaches-five-year-high/
Central banks do not control the economy rather they react to it, and usually too late
Look at NZ’s example
Too late to raise too late to ease