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The TUC’s Frances O’Grady has called for the government to get around the table with unions and employers to discuss sector-wide fair pay agreements amid rising costs and projections of very small real term rises in the next five years.
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady has called on the government to “give Britain a pay rise” as its analysis shows real wages are barely set to grow over the next five years due to inflation.
The analysis shows that real wages [taking into account inflation] are set to rise, on average, by just 0.6 per cent (£150) a year between now and 2026. The TUC estimates that getting real pay growth back to pre- financial crisis levels would leave workers £500 better off a year and £2,500 better off by 2026.
O’Grady says: “Families are bracing themselves for a cost-of-living storm in 2022. Bills are rising – fuel bills fastest of all. Millions of working households have been hit by the cut to universal credit – and will be hit next year by the hike to national insurance.
“Our economy will only recover when working people can afford to spend in local shops and businesses. That’s the way to boost demand, grow the economy and protect jobs.”
She said the UK had been in “the longest period of pay stagnation since the Napoleonic wars” since the 2008 recession.
She called on ministers to get round the table with unions and employers to discuss sector-wide fair pay agreements which every employer should be bound by.
She added: “After decades of real wage cuts and falling living standards, no one can seriously say working people don’t deserve a pay rise.
“That’s my priority, and the priority of the whole union movement, in 2022. The prime minister should shape up and make it his priority too.”