Price of Everything and the Value of Wages

Working Harder but getting poorer is conclusion of new report comparing wages and prices.

A new report from public Services Union UNISON Scotland- The Price of Everything and the Value of Wages - paints a stark picture of the decline and fall in living standards for workers across public services.

Years of zero or below inflation pay rises have meant that the value of wages has failed to keep pace with rising prices. The Cost of Everything and the Value of Wages tracks how prices have risen faster than wages and the way that inflation as it is experienced by the poorly paid is often significantly higher than headline figures would suggest.

The report details how the cost of food, fuel, childcare and rent amongst other essentials has increased faster than wages.

Dave Watson, Head of Bargaining and Campaigns with UNISON Scotland said;

"It’s no coincidence that we are bringing this report out at the start of Challenge Poverty week and the day of the Poverty Alliance Conference. Wage freezes are reducing people to poverty one fifth of the children in poverty in Scotland are in households where at least one adult is working. It’s no use politicians in Edinburgh and London trumpeting record employment figures if those in work aren’t getting enough to live on. Scotland needs a pay rise that’s the message we’ll be sending out loudly all this week and most especially on Saturday’s demonstration".

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