Workers aged 28-years-old in 2013 were the hardest hit, with their average salary shrinking by 18%. Staff over 50 only saw their salaries fall by 5% during this period, meaning they experienced the lowest decrease in earning during the recession. This is according to the UK Wages over the last four decades report by the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
ONS researcher Jamie Jenkins, who compiled the report, told HR magazine that even though wages suffered during the recession, the overall picture is positive.
"If you look across the 40 years, pay has gone up 100% across the board," he said. "That's even accounting for inflation. While we may take a while to return to the 2009 peak, the long-term picture is still pretty good."
Gender gap
The research compared the inequality in pay between men and women in 2013. It found that the imbalance is negligible between 20 and 30 but increases sharply afterwards, peaking at 49-years-of-age, when the divergence reaches 45%.
Peak wages
The ONS also researched peak wages over four decades. Employees who started work in 1975 have taken up to six year longer than those who started in 1995 to reach the same annual salary.
The report looks at the equivalent pay of employees who started their careers (at the age of 21) at different stages across the last 40 years and takes into account inflation across the period.
It also suggests that by the time both groups of employees reached the age of 39 those who started their careers in 1995 earn on average 40% more per-year more than those whose career began 20 years previously, even if inflation is taken into account.
Other figures from the research show that since 2009 both groups have seen average earnings fall, in real terms, by a similar amount. The 1995 cohorts have seen a 10% reduction, while the 1975 group have seen their wages fall by 12%.
Adzuna co-founder Andrew Hunter said that increases of wages "were all but wiped away in the post-recession slump".
"This was a direct result of business, rather than laying-off staff – they shared fewer tasks around the same number of people," he said. "Productivity – and profits – fell, putting pay to wage rises. Salary rises slowly slipped behind inflationary increases, and advertised salaries actually moved backwards. British workers found their monthly pay packets didn’t stretch as far as they used to."
