Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Pay & benefitsPay settlements

Young people suffer most from slowdown in income growth

by Jo Faragher 17 Jul 2017
by Jo Faragher 17 Jul 2017

Average income growth fell to just 0.7% in the year running up to the general election, research from think tank the Resolution Foundation has found.

Young people were worst hit by a slowdown in living standards, it said, with average incomes for those between 25 and 34 no higher than they were in 2002/03.

XpertHR resources

Forecasts for pay awards in 2017/18

Public sector pay 2016/17

Podcast: National minimum wage

Over the same 15-year period, pensioners’ incomes grew by 30%, according to the think tank’s Living Standards Audit 2017.

The report also found that, after a “mini boom” in living standards between 2013 and 2015, the year running up to June’s general election was tough for low and middle-income families, whose income grew just 0.4% last year, compared to 1% growth for those families in the top half of income distribution.

In contrast, the top 1% of households have enjoyed a “rapid recent recovery”, according to the Resolution Foundation, having recovered any financial ground lost since the financial crisis.

These families now have a record share of the nation’s income and their fortunes “have been the driver of rising inequality since the mid-1990s”, while the fortunes of the other 99% have fallen over the same period.

Falling interest rates have led to a boost in income for many households, the report found, with incomes for those with a mortgage increasing by 1.7% in 2016/7, compared to just 0.2% for private renters.

Adam Corlett, senior economic analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said: “For millions of young and lower income families the slowdown over the last year has come off the back of a tough decade for living standards, providing a bleak economic backdrop to the shock election result.

“Over the last 15 years and four prime ministers, Britain has failed to deliver decent living standards growth for young families and those on low incomes. Rising housing costs have added further financial pressures.

The big surprise of the recent election and EU referendum wasn’t that many of those families turned out to vote against the incumbents, but rather why it’s taken so long.

“This is the big challenge facing Britain today. Not only do we need to get incomes growing again but we need to ensure that that growth is spread evenly across the country, across generations and between rich and poor.”

The Resolution Foundation report added that “peak insecurity” in the UK labour market has passed over the course of 2016/17, with an increase in full-time roles and an improvement in job quality.

Jo Faragher
Jo Faragher

Jo Faragher has been an employment and business journalist for 20 years. She regularly contributes to Personnel Today and writes features for a number of national business and membership magazines. She won the Willis Towers Watson HR journalist of the year award in 2015 and has been highly commended twice.

previous post
Finance and HR: It’s time to collaborate
next post
How to find the balance between flexible working and “always on”

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

You may also like

BT workers vote for strike action over pay

1 Jul 2022

Postal workers and doctors threaten strikes over pay

28 Jun 2022

Heathrow-based cabin crew set for 18% pay rise

28 Jun 2022

Gender pay gap ‘won’t close until 2151’

27 Jun 2022

PwC to award inflation-busting pay increase

27 Jun 2022

Graduate salaries rise sharply as search for talent...

27 Jun 2022

‘Ministers must increase employee mileage rates’ as costs...

23 Jun 2022

Six findings from the national living wage review

22 Jun 2022

Inflation in May 2022 at 40-year high, as...

22 Jun 2022

Pay deals highest in 30 years, but outstripped...

21 Jun 2022
  • NSPCC revamps its learning strategy with child wellbeing at its heart PROMOTED | The NSPCC’s mission is to prevent abuse and neglect...Read more
  • Diversity versus inclusion: Why the difference matters PROMOTED | It’s possible for an environment to be diverse, but not inclusive...Read more
  • Five steps for organisations across the globe to become more skills-driven PROMOTED | The shift in the world of work has been felt across the globe...Read more
  • The future of workforce development PROMOTED | Northumbria University and partners share insight...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+