OPINION - The Leader podcast: Millions of workers suffer ‘biggest pay cut since 1977’

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that pay packets, excluding bonuses, plunged by 4.1 per cent in the last quarter.

To put this record dip into context, last June there was a 5.4 per cent rise in wages, dropping salaries faster than any time since 2001.

But additional analysis by the Resolution Foundation think tank paints an even gloomier picture for workers, showing we’re being hit with the biggest pay squeeze since 1977, when Jim Callaghan was prime minister.

At the same time, these latest ONS stats - which take soaring inflation into account - also reveal the number of British workers on the payroll increased between June and July by 73,000.

So are these latest sobering ONS figures a Covid economic hangover, is Brexit chaos and the Russia-Ukraine war causing the wages slide - or is something else at play?

And what’s the best way to collar your boss for a pay rise?

To examine how these issues, plus how long this economic shock could last amid recession fears and the impact of our tech-centred ‘fourth industrial revolution’, The Leader speaks with two leading London economists, Dr Grace Lordan, a labour economist at the London School of Economics and Hannah Slaughter, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation.

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