{"id":3510,"date":"2015-03-31T10:35:27","date_gmt":"2015-03-31T09:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=3510"},"modified":"2015-03-31T17:00:43","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T16:00:43","slug":"still-waiting-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=3510","title":{"rendered":"Still waiting"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When chancellor George Osborne gave his speech to outline the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s budget earlier this month, he hailed the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supposedly growing economy, calling it the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bComeback Country\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 
\nHe claimed living standards were rising and that the coalition government had created a labour market that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bmade work pay\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 
\nThat Osborne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s speech was far from the truth has been yet again proven yesterday (March 30) as results from a survey<\/a> show the vast majority of workers do not expect a pay rise of more than 2 per cent, with a sizeable portion expecting a pay freeze.<\/p>\n

 
\nOnly one in five workers expected an above 2 per cent pay rise, with almost 40 per cent saying they expected no change to their earnings this year.<\/p>\n

 
\nFor public sector workers the outlook was worse \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 45 per cent of these workers expected flat or falling wages, while 40 per cent expected the same in the private sector.<\/p>\n

 
\nPublic sector workers expected on average a 0.8 per cent pay increase, while private sector workers expect a slightly higher average increase of 1.2 per cent.<\/p>\n

 
\nChris Williamson, chief economist for Markit, the financial information firm for which Ipsos Mori conducted the poll, called the results worrying.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe survey data indicate that there are clearly few signs of pay growth picking up in 2015,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 
\n“This is a major concern as the sustainability of the economic upturn is largely dependent on pay growth reviving.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLike many others, the Bank of England is expecting a revival of pay growth to help support ongoing robust economic growth this year,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Williamson added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis data suggest policymakers are likely to be disappointed.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nThe survey results also found that wage expectations were progressively lower on the scale, moving from higher earners to low earners, meaning that the bottom end of the labour market \u00e2\u20ac\u201c those already struggling the most \u00e2\u20ac\u201c expect to continue earning less.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe Guardian<\/em> noted<\/a> that much of the economic growth reported in the past year can be attributed to increased household spending. But this spending came mostly from consumers dipping into their savings.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWithout a stronger rise in wages than the 1.6% growth rate registered in the latest official figures,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the Guardian<\/em> asserted yesterday, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bconsumer demand growth could peter out.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nThis means that any promise of an economic boom that the coalition government predictably trots out as the election nears will be nothing more than a mirage.<\/p>\n

 
\nIndeed, even as the Bank of England had predicted that a fall in unemployment would translate into higher wages, their models were spectacularly wrong — the 4 per cent higher earnings figures they predicted hover below 2 per cent now.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said the results of the survey demonstrate that working people have yet to gain from an economy that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supposedly on the up and up.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThese results are further proof that Osborne and the rest of his Tory pals are merely inventing an economic recovery in the hopes that we won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t notice the emperor isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wearing any clothes,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe economy will remain in the gutter until the gains those at the top have enjoyed throughout the financial crisis and beyond are shared fairly with working people who are the true wealth creators,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBritain needs a pay rise now to truly boost the economy. The minimum wage can and must be raised by \u00c2\u01411.50, something our research<\/a> has found is entirely affordable. Returning strength to unions and sector-level collective bargaining will also go a long way in addressing accelerating income inequality and the expanding swaths of working people on poverty pay.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

When chancellor George Osborne gave his speech to outline the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s budget earlier this month, he hailed the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supposedly growing economy, calling it the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bComeback Country\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.   He claimed living standards were rising and that the coalition government had created a labour market that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bmade work pay\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.   That Osborne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s speech was far from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[196,65],"wps_subtitle":"More than one in three workers expect no pay rise this year","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3510"}],"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=3510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3511,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3510\/revisions\/3511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}