Yahoo Finance Wages have kept on rising since the Brexit vote
Britain has seen three years of rising average pay levels since the EU referendum, despite fears the Brexit vote could threaten jobs and wages.
But the cost of living has risen almost as fast, with inflation cancelling out much of the possible gains from higher pay.
That is one of the stark findings of the latest economic figures released today by Britain’s official data body, the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The fact prices have risen almost as fast as wages means many British workers will barely feel any better off, even if they are taking home more every year.
The cost of some basic goods has risen sharply since the referendum, partly because it pushed down the value of sterling as investors took fright, ,making imported goods more expensive.
How much wages are rising
Average weekly earnings in Britain have soared from £464 in June 2016 at the time of the referendum to £498 in March this year.
Some economists suggest employers have been forced to increase wages because of near-record employment levels and increased skills shortages in particular sectors.
But real earnings - pay minus inflation - have crept up a far less impressive £5 in almost three years, from £460 to £465.
Real wages are actually lower than they were more than a decade ago before the financial crisis. Workers were earning real incomes of £473 a week in September 2007.
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In the past year alone, average weekly earnings have risen 3.3%. But after inflation, they are only up 1.5%.
Behind the record employment data
The latest figures also show the employment rate in Britain has reached the joint-highest figure on record at 76.1% of workers.
The UK unemployment rate was also estimated at 3.8%. It is the lowest since at least 1974.
But such positive figures on the state of the British economy conceal some less positive stories.
The official figures on unemployment only include unemployed workers who are actively looking for work.
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While the proportion of women working and looking for work has been on an upward trend for decades, the number of economically inactive men has more than trebled from 4.9% in 1971 to 16.3% in March 2019.
The ‘economically inactive’ category includes long-term and temporarily sick people, ’discouraged workers’ who have stopped job-hunting, pensioners, people looking after relatives, students and anyone else technically neither employed or unemployed.
Britain has also seen a significant rise in self-employment to a record high of more than 4.9 million.
The ONS notes: “In general, self-employed workers face higher risks and uncertainty about the stability and flow of their incomes than employees. Self-employed workers tend to earn less than employees doing similar work, and they also tend to work longer hours.
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