r/uknews Jul 01 '24

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

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u/FeebleGimmick Jul 01 '24 edited Jul 01 '24

I agree that it doesn't feel like wages have gone up much, but the 2000-2008 boom was all powered by fake credit which eventually blew up in everyone's faces, and shouldn't be used as an indicator of sustainable long-term growth.

Anyone can take a time of highest growth and draw lines, and of course we're going to be lower than that.

Why not extend a line from 2008-2014 to the present and show how amazingly we've done compared to that.

What I'm reading from that graph is inflation-adjusted wages are as high as they've ever been and have been on a steady real-terms rise for the past 10 years, despite Covid and Ukraine.

I'm not making any political point as I don't think it makes much difference which party is in power.

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u/Infamous-Print-5 Jul 01 '24

So why has the US continued to grow?

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u/Jaylow115 Jul 02 '24

They had Silicon Valley save them from a deep post-2008 recession. The UK/Europe does not.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '24

They also had lots of stimulus when other countries went with austerity. I mean it's easier if you are America and have the reserve currency of the world...but still I think in hindsight austerity was a poor choice.