Analysis and action on living standards
Entering employment, acquiring new skills and progressing up the pay ladder are important steps in many people’s lives, and essential for improving their living standards. But changes in the labour market, educational opportunities and the wider economy mean that different generations face different work and pay-related challenges, shifting across the life course.
Real weekly pay growth is the primary long-term driver of living standards improvements, reflecting changes in both hourly pay rates and working hours. Pay has performed poorly over the past decade, due to both the financial crisis and longer-standing factors. The data in this section demonstrates how weekly pay has changed across time, and how the pay of different cohorts compares at each age.
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A consistent CPIH series is available from 1989 onwards, which we project back to 1975 using changes in an estimated historic series of CPI inflation.
RF analysis of ONS, New Earnings Survey (1975-97); ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (1997-latest). This work contains statistical data from ONS which is Crown Copyright. The use of the ONS statistical data in this work does not imply the endorsement of the ONS in relation to the interpretation or analysis of the statistical data. This work uses research datasets which may not exactly reproduce National Statistics aggregates.
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