Tuesday 8 April 2008

Why we all deserve higher wages

I posted recently about the trends in prices & wages. Since then, I've seen on Gill George's blog a couple of interesting articles in response to the government offer of a 3-year pay cut for NHS staff.

Gill's latest article picks up material from the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) and what they say about inflation, which prompted me to go and have a look at the MPC's own web site, which has a wealth of useful information for trade unionists.

In the "costs and prices" data, this chart particularly caught my eye:
What does it mean? That real take-home pay has been dropping for several years, while profitability has stayed about the same. Or to put it another way - working people are paying the price for every bump and dip in the economy.

It's enough to make you think we need a union!



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