this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023

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UK wages grow at record rate (www.bbc.co.uk)

submitted 1 year ago by GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk

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[–] my_hat_stinks@programming.dev 46 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Misleading title. This article says wages grew 7.8% but inflation is still 7.9%.

If your pay does not rise to meet inflation you got a pay cut. Everything else is spin.

[–] Syldon@feddit.uk 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is why we need media reforms in the UK.

[–] tenebrisnox@feddit.uk 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Part of the continuing deception that "Everything's going well in the UK" while the excessively rich are looting the place.

[–] Syldon@feddit.uk 5 points 1 year ago

People are not falling for the con anymore. They have bottomed out and have no further to go.

[–] GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk 7 points 1 year ago

BBC's title!
It's unfortunate that the increase is still under the waves compared to inflation.

[–] 13esq@lemmy.world -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Semantics.

[–] md5crypto@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

You say tomatoe, I say tomatoe.

[–] BowserDelta@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ha. What bullshit.

[+] 13esq@lemmy.world -6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

What do you mean?

I and many others received the biggest payrise of their careers last year.

Inb4 "iTs StIlL a ReAl TeRmS cUt!!!".

It's still 8ish percent more than we had, , ,

Edit: Downvote if it makes you feel better, the distinction between a pay rise and a real terms pay rise is quite clear and it's obvious which this article is talking about. You stating "real terms cut!" is adding nothing to the debate, we are all well aware that it's a real terms cut!

The average worker in the UK has 8% more pounds in their paycheck than they did last year, you can debate the value of that but it's besides the point

[–] my_hat_stinks@programming.dev 4 points 1 year ago

It might be easier to visualise if you substitute money in for something more tangible. Let's use water as an example; you might earn a one litre bottle of water for every hour you work. Your company then announces a pay rise accross the board; everyone in the company will now get twice as amny bottles! Sounds great, everyone's on board, the company gets huge amounts of positive PR. You're excited when it comes to pay day, just think what you'll do with all that extra water! But when you get your pay you're sorely dissapointed; while you did get twice as many bottles of water, each bottle is half the size. You may have got twice as many bottles but you got the exact same amount of water.

In this analogy bottles are currency, water is value. Twice as many bottles is meaningless if they're half the size. You got a 0% raise.

[–] uberrice@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

You know. I'm Swiss, so a lot of this inflation is very evident to me.

In 2022, 1 CHF was around 0.8GBP. Now, in 2023, 1 CHF is around 0.9GBP.

Guess what, that 8% pay rise was lower than inflation. 8% on top of 0.8 is only 0.864.

Without any more pay in Switzerland, I got an effective raise higher than these 'great' 8% in GB

[–] BowserDelta@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My problem here isn't about real terms (which you might notice I didn't even say). It's about the fact that in a cost of living crisis this article even exists. It's incredibly tone deaf and feels very much like a "ooh look at the shiny" slight of hand. "Things can't be that bad, look wages are growing!" Does that sound like an accurate assessment of the economic situation here right now?

Yes, wages have grown - that's great but it's not particularly relevant when a lot of people are reliant on food banks to eat. Including those who have had an 8% pay rise.

Having more money is great, but only when you can actually get more with it.

[–] 13esq@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I may be wrong but I believe the article is paraphrasing the "be modest with your payrise expectations or we'll have inflation!" nonsense from a few months ago.

Like yh, that's the problem, nothing to do with a quarter trillion pumped in the the economy during COVID or Brexit.

The elite are once again trying to saddle the common man with the downfalls of the economy whilst they continue to laugh all the way to the bank.

Sorry if I got the wrong end of the stick with your comment.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 3 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Mr Morgan, the ONS's director of economic statistics, said that basic pay "is growing at its fastest since current records began".

Mr Morgan told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that real pay growth, when taking into account the rate of inflation, "is still falling a little".

Figures show that, taking into account the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) measure of inflation, average regular pay fell by 0.6%.

"The fall in employment in the three months to June and further rise in the unemployment rate will be welcomed by the Bank of England as a sign labour market conditions are cooling, " said Ruth Gregory, deputy chief UK economist at Capital Economics.

Ms Mason said the company had increased its wages to fill shifts left vacant by employees who, following Covid, decided they wanted a better work-life balance and have chosen to work fewer days.

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[–] seacocker@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Well done all the striking workers who have negotiated higher than initially offered wage increases!

[–] Elcapitan786@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Where I work we got around 2% increase. Hopefully a big increase coming.