[UK] Minimum wage workers ‘worse off by more than £1000’

New research suggests that workers on minimum wage rates are more than £1,000 worse off than a year ago, as a result of soaring inflation, Gibraltar Chronicle reports.

According to a study by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), when RPI inflation reached 7.5 per cent in December 2021 it meant that a worker on the National Minimum Wage would need £1,252 more a year to prevent a real terms pay cut. A worker on the voluntary Real Living Wage would reportedly need £1,395 more.

The research was published at a time when rail cleaners on four contracts in the South East ballot for strike action and train cleaners on the West Coast services take industrial action over their pay.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said, “Many workers have been hit by a double whammy of pay freezes and soaring inflation and no more so than those who were already on low wages.

“This report shows the devastating effect of inflation on the wage packets of the heroes who have kept our essential services running through the pandemic.

“It’s a national disgrace that so many of these workers - clapped, praised and glad-handed by the great and the good - are now expected to put up with pay cuts that leave these already low-paid workers struggling to make ends meet.”

Source: Gibraltar Chronicle

(Quote via original reporting)

New research suggests that workers on minimum wage rates are more than £1,000 worse off than a year ago, as a result of soaring inflation, Gibraltar Chronicle reports.

According to a study by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), when RPI inflation reached 7.5 per cent in December 2021 it meant that a worker on the National Minimum Wage would need £1,252 more a year to prevent a real terms pay cut. A worker on the voluntary Real Living Wage would reportedly need £1,395 more.

The research was published at a time when rail cleaners on four contracts in the South East ballot for strike action and train cleaners on the West Coast services take industrial action over their pay.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said, “Many workers have been hit by a double whammy of pay freezes and soaring inflation and no more so than those who were already on low wages.

“This report shows the devastating effect of inflation on the wage packets of the heroes who have kept our essential services running through the pandemic.

“It’s a national disgrace that so many of these workers - clapped, praised and glad-handed by the great and the good - are now expected to put up with pay cuts that leave these already low-paid workers struggling to make ends meet.”

Source: Gibraltar Chronicle

(Quote via original reporting)