{"id":14151,"date":"2017-12-14T16:28:03","date_gmt":"2017-12-14T16:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=14151"},"modified":"2017-12-14T16:28:03","modified_gmt":"2017-12-14T16:28:03","slug":"tis-the-season-christmas-wage-pain-inflation-rises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=14151","title":{"rendered":"‘Tis the season?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 the season where advertising for Christmas gifts and festive food goes into overdrive \u00e2\u20ac\u201c unfortunately the same can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be said for people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s frozen wages.<\/p>\n

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Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures<\/a> released yesterday (December 13) show average earnings increasing by 2.5 per cent, compared to inflation of 3.9 per cent.<\/p>\n

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The figures prompted a warning from Unite that many will be forced into painful choices over money this Christmas.<\/p>\n

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At a time when household budgets are already stretched to their limits, the news is likely to be given a frosty reception by struggling workers.<\/p>\n

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Just ask Leeds\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 paramedic Debbie Wilkinson, who is barely getting by and lives \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhand to mouth\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 because she hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had a pay rise in more than seven years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHousehold bills rise with inflation year on year but my salary doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite member Debbie, echoing the concerns of public and private sector workers across the country.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEveryone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s miserable and really broke because we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all so badly paid,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 explained a Premier Inn<\/a> worker and Unite member who did not wished to be named.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s awful. I earn under \u00c2\u01419 per hour and I am really struggling to pay rent,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said another Premier Inn worker.<\/p>\n

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It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the same situation for thousands of local government maintenance and housing workers, on whose behalf Unite have recently tabled a pay claim<\/a> in response to their earnings falling by a fifth in real terms since 2010.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite national officer for local authorities, Jim Kennedy, said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWorkers report they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford life\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s essentials like accommodation, food and heating. They simply can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make ends meet.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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The cold hard truth is that falling pay and rising living costs are a fact of life for millions of British workers, one made especially glaring during the Christmas holidays.<\/p>\n

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The Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has said that the UK now has the highest rate of inflation among the developed economies.<\/p>\n

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This has led to increasing prices, with food products seeing some of the steepest markups, while from January 2 rail fare rises<\/a> will hit a five year high of 3.4 per cent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Higher costs come at a time when real income growth has been falling for a decade \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a decline not seen the 1860s.<\/p>\n

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Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said,\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor too many people work simply doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pay enough to meet the bare essentials, leaving families across the UK facing painful choices this Christmas.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe continued squeeze in living standards, combined with changes and freezes to in work benefits like tax credits are forcing people into destitution.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOne in eight workers is now forced to eke out a living in poverty.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe need no back-slapping from ministers, but real action to boost incomes, to rid the economy of exploitative insecure work such as bogus self-employment and zero hours contracts and to put money in the pockets of hard-up public sector workers.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 the season where advertising for Christmas gifts and festive food goes into overdrive \u00e2\u20ac\u201c unfortunately the same can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be said for people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s frozen wages.   Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures released yesterday (December 13) show average earnings increasing by 2.5 per cent, compared to inflation of 3.9 per cent.   The figures prompted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14153,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[648,325,96,165],"wps_subtitle":"More Xmas wage pain as inflation rises","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14151"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14154,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14151\/revisions\/14154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}