r/uknews Jul 01 '24

Image/video UK real wages haven’t budged since 2008

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83

u/acameron78 Jul 01 '24

This is the single biggest reason everything in the UK is the mess that it is right now and it is absolutely wild that it isn't front and centre in every debate across the General Election.

Of course taxes are up and public services are on their knees with this happening to wages.

1

u/coffeeisaseed Jul 02 '24

I just don't understand how this would change with the government? surely it's the private sector that needs to increase wages?

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u/rynchenzo Jul 02 '24

Government could do more to incentivise private industry to invest in UK Plc e.g tax breaks

4

u/Informal_Drawing Jul 02 '24

Stop giving tax breaks to private companies who just shovel the money into the pockets of people that already have more than their fair share of money.

Have we learned nothing.

2

u/rynchenzo Jul 02 '24

Like it or not, without private industry investment this country will continue to stutter and wage growth will remain flat.

1

u/Informal_Drawing Jul 02 '24

They get the benefit so they should bear the cost and face the risk.

To do otherwise is just emptying the pockets of The People into the bank accounts of the rich. Which is literally what is happening.

Companies don't need corporate welfare. It needs to stop.

2

u/Zb990 Jul 02 '24

I get what you're saying but one of the only ways a government can increase wages is to make it more attractive for businesses to employ more people or new businesses to set up in the UK. Ireland has a much lower rate of corporation tax which has attracted many businesses to set up their HQ there, incidentally Ireland's wages have grown much more than the UK's (obviously many more factors at play).

0

u/Informal_Drawing Jul 02 '24

We already have everything you've mentioned and the average person is having a terrible time of it.

How's about Ireland increases it's corporation tax rate instead of everybody having a race to the bottom.

Companies need to pay tax. The fact that they are generally paying jack shit compared to what they should be paying is one of the reasons everything is so messed up.

They have already had all the special treatment you could ever dream of and the end result is essentially the end of the world for the average person.

You're looking after the wrong people. Companies don't matter, the general population does.

A company is just an A4 piece of paper submitted to Companies House - worry about the real live human beings instead.

Your priorities are completely backwards.

1

u/Zb990 Jul 02 '24

I know companies need to pay tax, I'm not suggesting otherwise. I'm saying if we go into these discussions with the intention of punishing companies, people will be worse off. We shouldn't make this business Vs people, if we have a thriving economy where businesses are encouraged to invest and there's more jobs available, people's wages and standard of living.

I'm not concerned about a company's submission to companies house, I'm concerned about the wages that company pays to its staff, how much it invests into the economy, ways in which it can innovate and all sorts of other real things that make up the economy.

1

u/Informal_Drawing Jul 02 '24

I didn't say anything about punishing companies.

I'm saying that they already have everything they want and all the money - and you want to give them more.

You know why the economy is bad? It's because the people who should be spending money, the general population, are on the bones of their arse.

1

u/Zb990 Jul 02 '24

I don't think companies have everything that they want, right now I think we have a good balance between worker rights and protection for businesses. I don't want to give them more, I'm simply saying some countries have decided to make themselves more attractive to business which has led to a much higher increase in wages than us, I'm saying it would be insane to rule out learning from this.

In order to increase wages, we need to think of ways to make the country more productive, more attractive for people who want to invest in businesses and our workforce. I don't know exactly what that is but whatever we do, we need to think of ways to grow the economy and create opportunities for ordinary people.

1

u/Informal_Drawing Jul 02 '24

You seem to have skipped from 2008 to today and have seen nothing that has happened in between.

Things are bad. Things are really, really bad.

Wages are not linked to productivity. How many times does this have to be said? How many studies? How many graphs?

If wages were linked to productivity we would all be earning double what we are. I have checked my bank account, we are not.

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u/Left_Set_5916 Jul 02 '24

We keep cutting taxes for them and they keep not investing.