British wages fall further than most other EU countries, including Spain

The rain, the grey, and the falling pay: what's keeping YOU in the UK?

The average wage in the UK has fallen by 5.5 per cent since the middle of 2010, according to recent figures released by the House of Commons Library.

The findings show that wages across the EU have fallen on average by 0.7 per cent over the past three years, with the UK the fourth-worst performing nation. Only workers in Greece, Portugal and the Netherlands fared worse than Brits, who have seen their real income fall drastically during this period…

In contrast, workers in Germany saw their wages increase by 2.7 per cent, while the French enjoyed a 0.4 per cent increase. As for Spain, the 3.3 per cent fall in salaries has hit millions of Spanish families hard.

However, Spain was not the worst performing country, and Brits who feel that times are tougher than ever would be right – this is the sharpest fall in UK salaries in living memory, with Britain among the worst-performing nations in the EU on matters relating to pay and disposable income.

“Working people are not only worse off under the Tories, we’re also doing much worse than almost all other EU countries,” said Cathy Jamieson, the Shadow Treasury Minister.

”Despite out-of-touch claims by ministers, life is getting harder for ordinary families as prices continue rising faster than wages.”

Living costs in the UK are among the highest in the EU, with Prime Minister David Cameron overseeing a record 35 months of falling real wages.