A survey from the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has found that more than one in six UK adults working full time or part time have had to skip meals to make ends meet. The figures come as workers have undergone the largest squeeze in real term pay since Napoleonic times. Real wage growth fell from between 2007-2019 by 0.2%. And it has only improved slightly since, with workers still worse off than they were from before the financial crash and the cost of living crisis continuing.
Labour: exacerbating cost of living crisis
The Labour Party’s first budget failed to address the crisis through measures such as public ownership of essentials (including renewable energy), price controls on essentials and significant rebalancing wealth taxes.
Switzerland has kept inflation much lower through its energy security and price controls. The country’s electricity production is 60% from hydropower and 29% from nuclear. On top of that, the Swiss government has issued price controls on 30% of goods and services in the country. This shields its citizens from profiteering price hikes (greedflation) and international gas markets (fossilflation).
In the budget, chancellor Rachel Reeves did increase capital gains tax. But she also boasted that we have still have the lowest rate of the G7. Proponents of an increased rate argue that people living off investments shouldn’t pay less tax than those working.
Equalising capital gains with income tax rates would rebalance the economy by a further £12.7bn on top of the £2.5bn from Labour’s increase in the budget. The budget’s improvements were piecemeal: Reeves also increased the minimum wage from £11.44 to £12.21 (a 6.7% rise) from April 2025.
The figures
Workers have undergone the biggest hit to living standards since the 1950s. Food prices generally rose by 19% from March 2022 until March 2023. But some key foods such as pasta and vegetable oil are up by at least 60%. Indeed, in 2023, 61% of the poorest fifth of households reported cutting back on food.
And the findings from the TUC umbrella group chime with this. While 17% of worker respondents (more than one in six) said they had skipped meals in the past three months, 8% said they skipped meals most days to make ends meet.
Further, 24% said they made large or significant cut backs in food spending over the past year. And 31% of working adults said they never or only occasionally put the heating on.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak had positive things to say about Labour’s Employee Rights Bill, currently at committee stage in parliament. The bill would ban zero hours contracts, among other measures.
Nowak also said:
After 14 years of Tory chaos and stagnation, we urgently need to boost living standards and to get more money into people’s pockets. This is vital for workers and for local economies too
Featured image via the Canary
