As workers across the UK prepare for strike action over pay, it has been revealed that Swindons workforce is taking a real terms pay-cut as wages struggle to keep pace with rampant inflation, shock analysis reveals.
Using data from the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Swindon Labour have revealed that real wages – the amount people earned in relation to their cost of living – of the average worker in Swindon has dropped by £80.02 a month or £960.18 a year, as a result of pay not keeping pace with inflation.
It means workers have seen the sharpest fall in real terms since 1977 and the second worst since the end of the second world war.
Talking about the latest revelations, the TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said “Family budgets have been shredded by soaring bills and more than a decade of pay being held down. The Conservatives have presided over the longest real wage squeeze in over 200 years.”
Echoing the TUC’s comments, Labour’s Jim Robbins said, “This has been a dismal year for working people in Swindon. Wages are down, inflation is soaring, taxes are higher than at any point since the second world war, yet our public services are on the verge of collapse.
“After 12 years of Conservative rules our country is in a mess, and hardworking people are ending the year struggling to heat their homes. But Labour has a plan to get Britain going again built around a Green Prosperity Plan to bring down bills, boost growth and create a million jobs to help places like Swindon win the high skilled high paid roles of the future.
“This is a great country, being held back by a failing Tory government. But there is a cure – a Labour government, and that’s what Swindon Labour will be fighting to deliver through 2023.”
