Huge wage squeeze means North West workers have lost more than £36 a week since 2007

In the last five years workers in the North West have suffered a huge squeeze on their incomes, with average pay falling by 8 per cent in real terms – a cash loss of £36.41 to employees working a 40-hour week.

A new TUC analysis of official figures compares hourly pay rates in 2007 (at 2012 prices) with those in 2012, and shows the extent of the pay squeeze being felt by families across the UK as incomes fail to keep pace with rising prices.

The North West is the hardest hit region in the UK. Here average hourly pay has fallen from £11.43 in 2007 to £10.52 in 2012 – an 8 per cent real terms drop. Full-time workers in the region are taking home £36.41 less in real terms a week as a result. In some parts of the region, real wage losses are more than £45 a week (Blackburn and Rochdale).

Across the North West men have seen their pay hit harder than women. According to the TUC analysis male workers have seen their hourly real pay rates drop from £13.03 to £11.75, a 9.8 per cent fall which works out at £51.11 less in their weekly pay packets in 2012 compared to 2007. Female employees saw their wages decline by 5.2 per cent in real terms over the five years, a loss of £20.91 for an average full-time worker on a 40-hour week.

Commenting on the figures, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Across the UK families are still really struggling to make their money go far enough – and are often having to go into debt – as they experience a huge squeeze on their household incomes.

“With real wages still falling, most people are being forced to use their credit cards or their dwindling savings if they need to purchase anything beyond the most everyday of items.”

North West TUC Regional Secretary, Lynn Collins said: “Families throughout the region are feeling the real impact of job losses, pay freezes and short working, directly in their purses and wallets. We know that just meeting basic necessities like school uniforms for children starting back this week is proving ever more difficult.

“The TUC wants to get families back on track, campaigning for economic growth to create more jobs and for a living wage to lift workers out of the poverty trap. This is just one of the areas we will be focussing on when the Conservative Party conference comes to our region on 29 September. Austerity doesn’t work and the North West needs a pay rise urgently.”