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date: 26 May 2009

embargo: 00:01hrs Thursday May 28 2009

The real middle Britain has missed out for thirty years

Those on middling earnings have been losing out sharply compared with better off professionals as well as the rich, and four out of ten middle income earners believe their job has a lower status than their father's.

These are two of the key findings of a new TUC Touchstone pamphlet Life in the Middle: The Untold Story of Britain's Average Earners. It says that most politicians and commentators get middle Britain badly wrong and that the failure of successive governments to deliver for middle earners helps explain current voter outrage with politics following the MP expenses scandal.

The pamphlet is based on a YouGov survey of the middle fifth of the population who straddle median income (the amount that divides the population in two). Median income stands at only £377 a week or just under £20,000 a year (2007 figures).

Although Margaret Thatcher first targeted what she called middle England 30 years ago and New Labour made its winning appeal to middle Britain in 1997, the pamphlet shows that middle income Britain is a long way from the comfortable professional middle class incomes that are now routinely referred to as middle Britain.

Median earners have seen their income go up less than average over the last 30 years, says the TUC. Since 1979 the income of median earners has gone up by 60 per cent, while much bigger increases for the better-off have pushed up average earnings by 78 per cent. While median income fell behind far more under the Conservatives as society rapidly became more unequal, the gap has continued to grow under Labour.

The YouGov survey shows that middle income Britain is:

• less likely to have had a university education;
• more likely to have experienced unemployment;
• less likely to enjoy a final salary pension scheme;
• less likely to hold shares, and
• less likely to have significant levels of savings than those just above them on the income scale.

The pamphlet also shows that spread of opportunities in education and the growth of well-paid, secure professional work has benefited higher earners to a greater extent than the bottom two-thirds.

Middle income Britain is aware of this, says the TUC pamphlet. Despite high aspirations for more fulfilling work and improved living standards, they show high levels of frustration at their inability to fulfil rising expectations. Four in ten people on middle incomes believe their job has a lower status than their father's.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'For all the talk of middle Britain, those on real middle incomes got left behind under the Conservatives, were left out of Labour's boom that has now busted into recession, and are now fearing for their jobs and homes as unemployment bites.

'No wonder there is so much anger at a political system that has seen the super-rich soar away, while too many MPs look to be more interested in joining the wealthy rather than standing up to them. Thirty years ago Britain was one of Europe's most equal societies, now it is one of the most unequal. Far from the middle being unaffected by the growing wealth and income gap, they have slipped behind not just the rich but the better-off professional classes.'

The pamphlet's author Stewart Lansley concluded: 'This may stand as one of the big failings of the last 30 years. Given the political rhetoric - that the policies on offer would secure middle income Britain a bigger share of growing national wealth and well-being - one might assume that the middle income Britain of the 1970s and 1980s has genuinely been transformed into the well-to-do middle Britain of current imagining. In fact, this is not the case.

'Maybe because of this, middle income Britain holds noticeably different values than those above them in the income hierarchy. They are more pro-state and strongly support Government action to tackle inequality.'

The TUC also launches today a middlebritainometer at www.touchstoneblog.org.uk/middlebritain where people can find out how close their earnings are to those of the real middle Britain.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- Life in the middle: the untold story of Britain's average earners is available atwww.tuc.org.uk/touchstone/lifeinthemiddle.pdf

- The characteristics of the real middle Britain. In terms of work, 45 per cent of median income respondents are in full-time employment and 19 per cent are in part-time work; 20 per cent are retired, while 12 per cent are unemployed or not working for health or other reasons. Those in work have a variety of jobs, concentrated amongst white-collar and skilled manual jobs, including; customer service administrators, dispatch clerks, retail managers, IT workers, landscape gardeners, site maintenance engineers, teaching assistants, librarians, receptionists and shop assistants.

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

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Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248 M: 07778 158175 E: media@tuc.org.uk
Rob Holdsworth T: 020 7467 1372 M: 07717 531150 E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk
Elly Brenchley T: 020 7467 1337 M: 07900 910624 E: ebrenchley@tuc.org.uk

Press release (900 words) issued 28 May 2009