Share of UK income going to wages falls

THE SHARE of national income going to wages has fallen over the past 30 years, while more has gone on company profits, especially financial firms, according to a new study.

The TUC said the success of the financial services sector had come at the expense of workers.

The share of national income going to wages had fallen from 59 per cent to 53 since the early 1980s, while the proportion going to profits had increased from 25 per cent to 29, it added.

General secretary Brendan Barber said: “You’d expect business owners across the UK to have benefited from the tens of billions of pounds lost from people’s pay packets, but instead the entirety of those lost wages have simply lined the profits of financial firms.”