Share of GDP paid to low earners down 25% in 30 years
The Resolution Foundation’s “Missing Out” report reveals that the share of GDP paid as wages to the bottom half of earners has fallen 25% in the last 30 years.
Matthew Whittaker
Website Matthew writes for Left Foot Forward on the economy, and in particular the impact of economic policies on low-to-middle earners and the "squeezed middle". He is a senior economist at the Resolution Foundation.
Low-to-middle earners to bear brunt of latest prescription price increase
The latest prescription price increase is likely to fall disproportionately on low-to-middle earners, writes Resolution Foundation senior economist Matthew Whittaker.
Time to think again about the way we measure inflation?
As was widely expected, annual inflation increased again last month; there is, however, a big question over how accurately these figures capture the extent of the price increases in different households.
Uneven inflation costing low-to-middle earners £150 a year
The CPI incread from 3.2% to 3.3% – above the government’s official target of 2% for the 11th month in a row – and the wider RPI measure rose from 4.5% to 4.7%.
Low-to-middle earners suffer 5.4 per cent drop in average salaries
The 2010 ‘Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings’ data released today by the ONS shows that the median annual salary earned by all workers fell by 0.4 per cent in nominal terms from £21,310 in 2009 to £21,221 in 2010. Once inflation is taken into account (RPI increased by 5.3 per cent between April 2009 and April 2010, which is the date the ASHE survey relates to), stagnation turns to significant contraction, with the median salary falling by a sizeable 5.4 per cent.
What’s the damage?
We have been warned that next week’s Emergency Budget could bring pain for years to come. Cameron’s coalition has promised that such pain is inevitable but that the medicine will be administered fairly. But there remain many questions about what such ‘fairness’ means in practice.
Budget 2010: Helping the “squeezed middle”
Matthew Whittaker is a senior economist at the Resolution Foundation With economic recovery still far from secured, there remains a need to focus immediate attention on the recessionary hangover being felt by so many UK households. In particular, despite dropstest