The gap in pay between low and high earners is growing, with an increasing number of workers taking home less than the national average, according to a report out today.
Top earners have enjoyed bigger pay increases than other workers over the past decade, which has led to an increase in the average earnings figure, currently £465 a week.
But a growing majority of workers now earn less than the average and the trend has worsened since Labour came to power in 1997, according to the report by pay analysts Incomes Data Services (IDS).
Over the past ten years, the pay of the top earning ten per cent of employees has risen by almost 54 per cent, while the lowest ten per cent have seen their earnings increase by only 45 per cent.
The national minimum wage had improved earnings for the lower paid since it was introduced in 1999, but had little impact on the growth in overall earnings inequality, said the report.
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