Earnings in 27 London boroughs still below 2007 level

EarningsLONDON

Earnings in 27 London boroughs still below 2007 level once inflation has been taken into account new GMB study shows

The real value of earnings for all full-time employees resident in London has dropped by 17.9% between April 2007 and April 2016 a new GMB London Region analysis of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings shows.

27 out of the 29 areas in London still have a lot of ground to make up on earnings levels before the recession.

For full time employees resident in the borough of Westminster the drop has been 38.7%, in Hammersmith and Fulham the drop is 29.5%, in Camden 25.2%, in Tower Hamlets 24.2% and in Southwark 20.4%.

Set out in the table below are the 2007 and 2016 mean annual earnings figures for 29 London boroughs where data are available with the actual change figures and the change figures taking into account inflation of 27.3%.

The tables have been compiled by GMB London region, see notes to editors for sources and definitions.

Warren Kenny, GMB London regional secretary, said,

"The real value of earnings for all full-time employees resident in London has dropped by 17.9% between April 2007 and April 2016.

"There are still 27 London boroughs where earnings are below the level of 2007 once inflation has been taken into account.

"We need several years of growth to fill the gap and to meet the ever rising cost of housing.

"The recession and inflation are not the only causes of the decline in the value of earnings in the private sector especially for lower paid manual workers. Capital's share of annual national income has increased by nearly 50% in a generation while the share going to wages has declined.

"Employers threats and actions, like the recent sacking of shop stewards at Cineworld in London in the course of strike action on pay, is curtailing the rights of workers to join trades unions and to seek collective bargaining agreement to resist and reverse this transfer of income from labour to capital.

"This hostility is widespread and enjoys effective impunity. In Amazon trades union organisation is underground like the French resistance as is the case elsewhere. It is a major cause of growing inequality in the UK.

"So employers hostility is not only abusing the human rights of workers to join trades unions to hold down pay in favour of profits but it now also threatens consumer spending and increases the risk of a further recession.

"Last month the GMB Congress called for hostile action by employers against workers wanting to join unions to be made a criminal offence punishable by punitive fines and prison sentences. The current position where employers can violate the human rights of workers to join trades unions and to seek collective bargaining with impunity can no longer be tolerated.

"This impunity for employers hostility in the private sector is maybe more important than the pay cap in the public sector in holding down pay in the private sector.

"GMB will mobilise to support a national roadshow for the sacked shop stewards at Cineworld in Brixton being used to win support for their pay dispute and to highlight the need for legislation to deal with the current effective impunity employers enjoy in denying workers rights by aggressive hostile actions.

"So as well as lifting the pay cap in the public sector action is also needed in the private sector to secure decent pay rises.

"This will require legislation to deal with the current effective impunity employers enjoy in denying workers rights to join unions to end the silencing and oppression of the manual  working class in the UK.

"All workers should be looking for decent pay rises in both the public and private sectors.

"So as well as Parliament acting on the pay cap in the public sector it has a key role to play in liberating the UK working class to fight for their fair share of national income now going to capital.

"Workers are not looking for charity but for effective enforcement of the human rights they have but which are denied by employers with impunity. This should be one of the lessons the employers should draw from the results when the electorate was asked to vote in recent nationwide polls."

ENDS

Contact: Richard O'Leary 07710 631347; Dave Powell 07710 631349 or Keith Williams 07710 631339

Notes to Editors:

1 Source: 2007-2016 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings - residence based for all employee jobs. Table 8.7a, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Office for National Statistics. Crown Copyright Reserved.

2 The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is based on a 1% random sample of employee jobs (approximately 181,000 employees) taken from HM Revenue and Customs PAYE records. Information on earnings and hours is obtained from employers and treated confidentially. It covers all employee jobs in all industries and occupations across the whole of the United Kingdom. In 2016 information related to the pay period which included 13 April.

3 ASHE analyses for annual earnings relate to employees on adult rates of pay who have been in the same job for more than one year. ASHE does not cover the self-employed or the armed forces nor does it cover employees not paid during the reference period.

4 Further details are available here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2016provisionalresults