Excluding heavy-weight China, the real wage growth in the region increased by much less, at 0.3 per cent in 2021 and 0.7 per cent in the first half of 2022.

The severe inflationary crisis, combined with a global slowdown in economic growth—driven in part by the war in Ukraine and the global energy crisis—are causing a striking fall in real monthly wages in many countries, the report, titled ‘The Global Wage Report 2022-2023: The Impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power’, said.

The crisis is reducing the purchasing power of the middle class and hitting low-income households particularly hard, it said.

Global monthly wages fell in real terms to minus 0.9 per cent in the first half of 2022, the first negative global wage growth recorded since the first edition of the Global Wage Report in 2008, the ILO report estimates.

The striking fall in real wages in the last year of the series (2022) is mainly due to the increase in inflation that started in 2021 and has continued during 2022, it said.

A cost-of-living crisis could well dominate wage trends until the end of 2023, the report added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)