WEEKLY wages have increased by a miserable pound in a whole year — marking the longest pay tumble since the days of Queen Victoria.

Since 2009, annual increases have been at 1.4 per cent on average — but the year to April saw a minuscule rise of just 0.1 per cent.

When adjusted for inflation, this means a pay packet drop of 1.6 per cent.
The shocking figures also revealed that almost 200,000 adult workers are earning less than the national minimum wage.

And while the gender pay gap has fallen to its lowest since records began, it still looms large at 10 per cent.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady warned that the Con-Dem government was shutting workers out of the so-called recovery.

“Ordinary households are not sharing in the recovery and the recession in their wages continues despite the economy’s return to growth,” she said.

“The government is making history for the longest fall in real earnings since records began — a time when Queen Victoria was on the throne.

“Britain needs a pay rise to end the decline in living standards and to put the spending money in people’s pockets that will keep businesses growing.”

Resolution Foundation chief economist Matthew Whittaker said: “Today’s bleak figures contrast with signs last week that the UK’s six-year pay squeeze was coming to an end.

“While today’s data relates to April — a period in which we already knew pay was falling — the depth of decline highlights just how tentative any recent recovery remains.”

In Scotland, campaigners reacted angrily to the news, pointing out that the top 10 per cent of bosses now earn £5,840 more than if their pay had risen with inflation since 2009.

Scottish TUC general secretary Grahame Smith said: “Real wage growth has been forecast regularly since the recovery in GDP growth became embedded last year but has yet to transpire.

“The STUC is sceptical that real wages, particularly for those in low-wage, insecure work, will start to grow strongly in the short-term.”