Current talk in the UK news about wages had me interested. As just one example, which I don't claim is representative, my salary is pretty much the same now as it was 17 years ago.
A lot of that is the result of decisions I've made along my so called career and it could be argued I was overpaid back then, but now I'm more experienced, skilled and some might even say more mature. I work hard in a fairly skilled field and I have seen my wages stagnate in figures and therefore drop in real terms.
According to the Bank of England UK inflation calculator for my salary to have simply kept pace with inflation, equaling what I was paid at a lower end of the same field, I'd need to be paid £14,705 more.
This isn't to say that I feel terribly hard done by. We're quite comfortable, and much better off than many, though that's in part because we don't have children and have stayed in the house we bought in 1998. That in itself is interesting, because it means this perfect first-time-buyer's home has never come on the market, possibly won't for many years. That's another story...
As I say, between us my wife and I have enough. We're not just scraping by. Don't feel sorry for us.
What really concerns me is those of us who are now middle aged, the Gen-Xers are perhaps the last to be ok.
Assumptions that could be made by my parents generation: that wages would rise with age and experience and a decent pension would be there at the end, I don't see that for me.
How much worse for next generation unless things change?
