A study of wages in the post-war period published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found the deep and prolonged period of falling real average earnings experienced by workers since January 2009 was unusual.
It said that weekly earnings (excluding bonuses) had fallen by 8% when pegged against the Consumer Price Index (CPI) as a measure of inflation, and by 10.2% if the Retail Price Index (RPI) was used.
The report also said the recession saw a sharp fall in labour productivity – the amount of value added or created an hour worked – with less productivity resulting in less money available for wages.
At the same time, the CIPD published the results of a survey that showed a third of employees do not expect to receive a pay rise in 2014.
The study of 2,683 working adults across all industrial sectors revealed a further third expected the same rise in wages in 2014 as they received in 2013, when the median rise was a below-inflation 2%.
CIPD chief economist Mark Beatson said employers, employees and policy makers needed to “come together in a combined effort to improve UK productivity”.
“We need a shared agenda to produce the long-term improvement in productivity needed to make higher pay affordable and sustainable without pushing up unemployment,” he said.
“And Government has a part to play too, with a more concerted effort needed to provide an improved supply of higher level skills and just as importantly encourage greater demand for and utilisation of these skills.
“This needs to be driven through integrated industrial and skills policies designed to equip the UK with the capability to compete more effectively through innovation, efficiency and quality, as compared to an approach that sees us attempting to compete excessively on low cost.”
According to the CIPD, the proportion of employees receiving a pay rise increased marginally from 48% in 2012 to 51% in 2013, which was down on the 67% recorded in 2008.
