Ryan FowlerRetail sales fell by 0.3% in December 2024, underlining the economic strain on households as living standards stagnate. According to the TUC, one in six workers has regularly skipped meals over the past three months to make ends meet, while the average worker would be £117 a week better off had wages grown at the same pace as between 1997 and 2010.
Real wage growth under Conservative-led governments from 2010 to 2024 was just 0.3% per year, the worst for any period of government since the 1920s. Over the same period, the number of people in insecure work rose by 1 million, reaching 4.1 million by 2023.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “People need to be able to spend on their local high streets, but years of stagnating living standards under the Conservatives have taken their toll. One in six workers are regularly skipping meals to make ends meet. That’s not right and it’s why the Government’s Make Work Pay agenda is so important.
“More money in people’s pockets means more spend on our struggling high streets – that’s good for workers and good for local economies too. It’s time to leave behind the broken model which saw insecure work explode and living standards decline. The Employment Rights Bill will deliver the economic reset working people desperately need.”
