Wage rises for UK employees are still being outpaced by the rising cost of living, according the latest data.
Regular pay, excluding bonuses, rose by 4.7% between April and June, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
Average total pay including bonuses increased by 5.1%.
However, with inflation rising to a 40-year high of 9.4%, the gap between pay growth and inflation is the biggest since records began more than 20 years ago.
Adjusted for inflation, over the year, total pay fell by 2.5% and regular pay fell by a record 3.0%.
Nye Cominetti, a senior economist at the Resolution Foundation think tank, said that the UK was seeing the deepest pay squeeze since the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977.
“The scale of this pay pain is even deeper than official figures suggest too, as pay growth estimates are still artificially boosted by the effects of the furlough scheme last year,” Cominetti added.
Household budgets are being hit by soaring energy bills as well as higher costs for food and fuel.
Inflation climbed to 9.4% in June and the latest figure — due to be published on Wednesday — is forecast to be higher.
The Bank of England has said previously that higher energy prices are likely to push inflation to around 13% before the end of the year.
