by WILL STONE and LUKE JAMES

Workers are still being made to pay for the bosses’ crisis, with those in construction hardest-hit, official figures showed yesterday.

The Office for National Statistics said average real hourly wages in 2013 were down a massive 7.6 per cent on 2008.

In construction, hourly pay was 13.4 per cent lower than before the capitalist crisis.

But in the finance and business services industry — where bank bosses’ reckless gambling helped trigger the crash — wages have dropped 4.2 per cent overall.

“These figure demonstrate that construction workers, through no fault of their own, have paid a massive financial penalty, due to the greed and the excess of bankers,” construction union Ucatt general secretary Steve Murphy told the Star.

Household disposable income also dipped by 0.3 per cent in the last quarter of 2013, the report showed.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said workers’ pay packets had seen a “deep squeeze” since 2008.

“Construction workers have been hit the hardest and are currently receiving just 86p for every pound they earned before the crash,” she said.

“What’s even more worrying is that the recent recovery is failing to raise living standards. Disposable incomes are still falling and people are no better off today than they were nine years ago.

“We need a recovery that benefits ordinary families, rather than one where the proceeds of growth just go to the same old wealthy elites.”

The TUC’s Fair Pay Fortnight, a series of events across England and Wales highlighting falling living standards, runs until April 6.