If you want fair pay, join a union today" urged CWU general secretary Billy Hayes after a salaries survey by the TUC estimated that UK pay has dropped a staggering £60 billion in real terms since 1978.
The study - All in this together? - questioned the changing proportion of national output that goes on wages over the past 34 years and found that this had fallen from 58 per cent to 53 per cent, meaning that UK workers took home £60bn less in 2011 than if the wage-output ratio had stayed at 1978 levels.
Just the past few years have seen earnings take a sharp hit, pay rises falling from an average 4.2 per cent to just 1.7 per cent in the two years either side of the 2008 credit crunch. The report also notes that, as of last September, 99 per cent of wage deals were below RPI inflation.
Commenting on the revelations, Billy Hayes said: "At a time when top bankers are still being handed £1million-plus bonuses, this research from the TUC is extremely timely.
"When the top bosses want huge pay rewards, we get told they need it or they might quit the country - but when workers on the front line push for higher pay, they get called greedy and selfish.
"Trade union membership is the only proven way to improve workers' pay, conditions and job security - and every study shows that," Billy continued, "and the fact that trade union membership has halved since 1978 may well explain the drop in pay in real terms since then."
As it's obviously escaped your notice our blooming pay has dropped significantly in real terms 
