What would you feel if working for a company you kept delivering stretched targets, the company growing, its chiefs are happy and yet you had no increase for years?

This is story of public sector (civil servants) which lost 15% of their income in past several years. The U.K. Public sector plays a massive role in the economy, as many sectors either state monopoly or with large participation. There is a lot of proximity in that sense between the U.K. and China or Russia.

For seven years public sector employees received 1% increase while even official inflation figures where 2-3% a year (the actual inflation is higher). Prior the seven years there was pay freeze for several years, while the economy was somewhat growing.

In 2017 conservative controversial prime minister devised divide and concur plan – 2% annual rise for police and 1.7% for prison officers. Even in this highly dividing approach there is a catch – pensionable salary increased by 1% (making the “increase” a bonus) while budget stays the same. Now police and prisons bean counters forced to make more cuts to accommodate the so-called increase. The official inflation was above 3% making the increase a pay cut.

In the mean time the USA the median income rose (inflation adjusted) by 3.2% from 2015 to 2016 reaching $59,000. Since 2014 median household income has increased 8.5% in real terms or $4,600.

This is how conservatives in the U.K. “bowing” to the will of people, while squeezing life out of them with disastrous policies. Two decades have been lost for ordinary people.