Wages growth vs. Inflation; EU and UK

[JamesWales]

Wages Growth vs inflation is obviously key to determining quality of life growth.

EU v UK is interesting in helping to determine, or rule out, what is causing the issues.

None of this is good news, our wage growth is outstripped by inflation, but the EU's is significantly worse. Something is going to have to give here.

UK Wage growth 6.8%
UK inflation 9%

EU wage growth 2.7%
EU annual inflation 8.1%


Euro Area Wage Growth - 2022 Data - 2023 Forecast - https://tradingeconomics.com/euro-area/wage-growth

United Kingdom Average Weekly Earnings Growth - May 2022 Data - 2001-2021 Historical

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/wage-growth

Inflation Rate - Countries - List | Europe

https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/inflation-rate?continent=europe

[Rjk]

Re: Wages growth vs. Inflation; EU and UK

I'm not sure those numbers are directly comparable.

Also if you strip the "bonuses" figure out of the UK wages the increase is a lot lower, and plenty of people don't get any bonus.

[Feedback]

Re: Wages growth vs. Inflation; EU and UK

We've in the UK, so we need to look at the UK figures. We are no longer in the EU. This thread is as pointless as two bald men arguing over a comb

[JamesWales]

Re: Wages growth vs. Inflation; EU and UK

There are of course some inevitable variables when comparing any two areas. But I follow this stuff and have seen nothing that suggests the UK is doing worse than the EU here.

Inflation is high in both areas; slightly higher in the UK at present, but that changes each month/quarter, but wage growth is consistently higher in the UK.

Just pointing it out.

Main thing is to stress that something has to give on this, because those EU show a near 5.4% real terms cut across the board, so no doubt some countries are probably closer to 10%

[Swiss Peter]

Re: Wages growth vs. Inflation; EU and UK

There are of course some inevitable variables when comparing any two areas. But I follow this stuff and have seen nothing that suggests the UK is doing worse than the EU here.

Inflation is high in both areas; slightly higher in the UK at present, but that changes each month/quarter, but wage growth is consistently higher in the UK.

Just pointing it out.

Main thing is to stress that something has to give on this, because those EU show a near 5.4% real terms cut across the board, so no doubt some countries are probably closer to 10%

I have worked with this stuff too. You have presented a superficial snapshot of data, and seem to be trying to make some point about comparing UK and EU, together with dark warnings about "something having to give". What are you getting at? Come on, James, spit it out.

[Doucas]

Re: Wages growth vs. Inflation; EU and UK

Completely failed to mention how little wages in the UK have grown compared to Europe since 2010.

Also these inflation figures don't take into account electric and gas, fuel, housing etc. This entire thread is pointless.

I've got some cherries you can pick.

[cyril evans awaydays]

Re: Wages growth vs. Inflation; EU and UK

Wages Growth vs inflation is obviously key to determining quality of life growth.

EU v UK is interesting in helping to determine, or rule out, what is causing the issues.

None of this is good news, our wage growth is outstripped by inflation, but the EU's is significantly worse. Something is going to have to give here.

UK Wage growth 6.8%
UK inflation 9%

EU wage growth 2.7%
EU annual inflation 8.1%


Euro Area Wage Growth - 2022 Data - 2023 Forecast - https://tradingeconomics.com/euro-area/wage-growth

United Kingdom Average Weekly Earnings Growth - May 2022 Data - 2001-2021 Historical

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/wage-growth

Inflation Rate - Countries - List | Europe
https://tradingeconomics.com/country...ntinent=europe

Presumably all this hypothesis translates into the relative strength of currencies as judged by world markets rather than hyperlinks.

[Organ Morgan.]

Re: Wages growth vs. Inflation; EU and UK

The spending power of people's income and savings will continue to shrink.While they are collecting more than ever before in wages and/or benefits, inflation will ensure they will effectively become poorer, and this contrived demolition into penury has hardly begun.

Cost of living crisis: Britons cannot expect pay rises to keep up with inflation, Treasury warns - https://news.sky.com/story/cost-of-l...warns-12636041

[JamesWales]

Re: Wages growth vs. Inflation; EU and UK

Presumably all this hypothesis translates into the relative strength of currencies as judged by world markets rather than hyperlinks.

You will be aware that the Euro is at 20 year low against the dollar?

[JamesWales]

Re: Wages growth vs. Inflation; EU and UK

Completely failed to mention how little wages in the UK have grown compared to Europe since 2010.

Also these inflation figures don't take into account electric and gas, fuel, housing etc. This entire thread is pointless.

I've got some cherries you can pick.

Yes, wage growth vs inflation is a completely useless statistic. Okay. Good one.

You are just annoyed that the narrative that the UK is the worst place in Europe is incorrect.

[Feedback]

Re: Wages growth vs. Inflation; EU and UK

You will be aware that the Euro is at 20 year low against the dollar?

I'm not really sure how this adds anything to the debate but here we are.

[JamesWales]

Re: Wages growth vs. Inflation; EU and UK

I'm not really sure how this adds anything to the debate but here we are.

Cyril mentioned currencies..

[life on mars]

Re: Wages growth vs. Inflation; EU and UK

Stripping away all the point scoring fundamental questions :

should folk get 11% ??

what happens when inflation falls to 2% do we apply wage cuts ??

can UK afford it ??

should public sector get better rises than private ?

if private sector did get the same as public would business cost rise resulting in redundancies ?

should public sector pensions be eased for the taxpayer to fund wage increases , as this is a benefit the private sector doesn't get and not factored in very often ..

if something like 11% is issued guess costs to consumer go up , business go the wall and services become cut ??

will more jobs go off shore especially those call centres type roles that can be done anywhere .?

will pay rises bring about less full time workers

I'm sure I've got it wrong but it all sniffs of opportunity country is coming out of Covid struggling to recover best to kick it now whilst its down rather than allow any sort of recovery classic union tactics ...

The part I struggle with is kids need to be in school after two years of pain and absence , hospital staff need to get into work on transport to save lives and get the lengthy waiting lists down rather than wait and see folk die ??

We could have a much worse unemployment situation due to Covid thankfully we don't due to the excellent billions of pounds of Furlough / business support measures .

Sadly a lot of folk had to take a 20% cut in wages to survive in work , whilst the public sector had 100% payments and in some case not working , or working in a restricted manner , got a feeling RMT workers maybe have been on full pay ,no mention of that benefit though ??

[Feedback]

Re: Wages growth vs. Inflation; EU and UK

Cyril mentioned currencies..

vis a vis the euro and sterling, and not the dollar.

[JamesWales]

Re: Wages growth vs. Inflation; EU and UK

vis a vis the euro and sterling, and not the dollar.

Remarkably stable in the last 6 years

https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GBP&to=EUR&view=10Y