Global wages have fallen in real terms this year for the first time since comparable records began, the International Labour Organization said on Wednesday, arguing there was scant evidence of pay pressures stoking inflation.
The UN agency’s annual report on pay showed that global monthly average wages in the first half of 2022 were 0.9 per cent lower in real terms than a year earlier, marking the first outright fall in worldwide living standards in the 15 years for which the ILO has published data.
The drop was steepest in the developed world, where inflation picked up earlier. The ILO said that among G20 economies, which account for about 60 per cent of the world’s waged employees, real wages had fallen 2.2 per cent year on year in advanced economies. Across G20 emerging economies, wage growth slowed but remained positive at 0.8 per cent — but this was in large part due to China’s resilience, with other major countries such as Brazil hit hard.