Stagnant wages since 2008 financial crash means workers £11,000 worse off

Workers are £11,000 worse off per year due to 15 years of wage stagnation, according to the Resolution Foundation.

In new figures shared with BBC Panorama, the think tank calculated that, had wages continued to grow at the pace seen before the 2008 financial crash, the average worker would make £11,000 more per year than they do now, taking rising prices into account.

Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, told the BBC the wage stagnation of the past 15 years is “almost completely unprecedented”.

He said: “Nobody who’s alive and working in the British economy today has ever seen anything like this.

“This is definitely not what normal looks like. This is what failure looks like.”

The think tank also found typical UK household incomes have fallen further behind those in Germany: in 2008, the gap was more than £500 a year, now it is £4,000.

A Treasury spokesman told the broadcaster the Government was increasing incentives for investment and signalled low unemployment – as well as its plan to increase growth – as signs the country was on the right track.