Retail worker salaries are failing to keep pace with the rising cost of everything and lag increases secured by those in other sectors, despite a period of elevated company profits.
“I get a little disappointed that people’s first experience of the labour market is not necessarily a rewarding one,” Buchanan says.“A young teacher or a young nurse, when they enter a school or a ward, they’ll usually be surrounded by people who have traditions of organising and traditions of standing up to employers and not just taking what they are served up.”
The slow growth comes for workers who are already among the lowest paid in the nation and they tend to feel inflation more severely than higher-salaried workers, given a larger portion of their wages go to essential items and they have less discretionary income to make spending adjustments.