Who got biggest slice of economic pie?

It may come as no great surprise that since the financial crisis of 2008 many of us have experienced a wage squeeze, while the cost of living has gone the other way. However, as Duncan Weldon of the TUC pointed out in a special programme he’s produced for BBC Radio 4's Analysis, wages for most people in the UK began stagnating years before the crisis.

The early 2000s tend to be thought of as a time of relative wealth: house prices were rising, credit flowed easily, the government introduced a generous tax credit scheme and people generally felt better off. But these masked the reality of what was going on.

There was almost no wage growth for middle earners and below during the five years leading up to 2008 and yet the economy grew by 11% in that period, according to Weldon. The overall share of the national income which goes into wages, as opposed to profits, has been decreasing since the mid-1970s.

Less of the economic pie is going into the pockets of ordinary workers. And of course, this means that a disproportionate amount of the economic wealth has been going to those at the top.

http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2012/02/profits-before-pay-duncans-analysis-podcast/