British Workers' Wages Suffer One of Biggest Falls in Europe

[Faline]

The value of UK workers' wages has suffered one of the biggest falls in Europe, it has emerged.
Figures collated by the House of Commons library show a 5.5 per cent reduction in average hourly wages since mid-2010.
Adjusted for inflation, this means British workers have felt the squeeze more than those in countries which have been rocked by the eurozone crisis.
Struggling Spain saw a 3.3 per cent drop over the same period while Cyprus saw salaries fall by 3 per cent. Only the Greeks, Portuguese and Dutch have had a steeper decline that Britain, the analysis showed.

In Germany hourly wages rose by 2.7 per cent over the same period and in France there was a 0.4 per cent increase.
Shadow Treasury minister Cathy Jamieson said: 'These figures show the full scale of David Cameron's cost of living crisis.

'Working people are not only worse off under the Tories we're also doing much worse than almost all other EU countries.
'Despite out of touch claims by ministers, life is getting harder for ordinary families as prices continue rising faster than wages.

'People on middle and low incomes have also seen tax rises and cuts to tax credits, while millionaires have been given a huge tax cut.
'Ministers keep talking about the global race, but when it comes to living standards it's clear we're losing. David Cameron and George Osborne's economic policies have badly failed over the last three years and working people are paying a heavy price.'
The Opposition has sought to highlight the rising cost of living in its attacks on the Government's economic policies.
Workers will have lost £6,660 by the time of the next election and incomes will be £1,520 lower in real terms in 2015 than in 2010, according to Labour analysis of Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts.
David Cameron's 35 consecutive months of falling real wages is worse than any other prime minister on record and spending power has dropped in every month but one under coalition rule as price rises outstrip wage increases.
Apart from Mr Cameron, James Callaghan is the only PM on record to have overseen more than a year of constantly falling real wages, the party's analysis of Office for National Statistics figures showed.
Across the EU as a whole the average fall in wages, adjusted for the European Central Bank' s harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP), was -0.7 per cent and in the eurozone area it was -0.1 .
A Treasury spokesman said: 'The economy is on the mend, but we've still got a long way to go as we move from rescue to recovery and we appreciate that times are still tough for families.
'We are on the right track, the deficit is down by a third, over one and a quarter million new private sector jobs have been created, and interest rates are at near-record lows, benefitting families and businesses.
'The Government has taken continued action to help families with the cost of living: raising the tax-free personal allowance to £10,000 taking 2.7 million people out of tax altogether; freezing fuel duty which has kept prices 13 pence per litre lower than they would otherwise have been; and freezing council tax.'

[kellyhound]

work harder, earn less and die poor.

meanwhile,

Britain has three times as many highly paid bankers than the rest of Europe put together, according to new figures likely to reopen the dispute over City pay.

Data from the European Banking Authority, the EU regulator, suggested Britain had 2,436 bankers earning more than €1m (£860,000) – a figure thought to be reflective of London’s pull as a major financial centre. Next was Germany, which managed to maintain Europe’s biggest economy with just 170 highly paid financiers, a figure 14 times lower than that in the UK. France, meanwhile, had just 162. In eight countries in the EU, no bankers received more than €1m.

Nearly three-quarters of the 2,436 British financiers who received more than €1m were classified as working in investment banking, while 85 worked in retail banking, 182 in asset management and 360 in other business areas. The new data shows that over three times more was paid out in bonuses than in fixed salaries in the City, which would appear to breach the bonus cap that is being introduced from next year.

The cap is designed to address public anger at a bonus-driven culture many European politicians believe encouraged the risk-taking that led to the near-collapse of many of the region’s biggest banks. Pat McFadden, the Labour MP who sits on the Treasury Select Committee, said: “These figures illustrate the ongoing problem with huge salaries in banking at a time of austerity for most people. The problem with pay in banking is not just the high levels but that bonuses are paid out without risks being understood and on the basis of results that don’t look so good in the future.”

In crisis-hit Spain, the average annual pay for bankers earning over €1m was €2.4m, the highest in Europe – but this average represented just 125 individuals.

[ak74]

funny how there are more flash cars about and house prices are going up!!,, people here think not having the new iPhone is being poor