The Institute of Fiscal Studies reckons household income of middle earners in 2013 was about 6% lower than in 2007, says the BBC.
The Office of National Statistics says the fall in real earnings – wages adjusted for inflation – has been the longest since the 1960s. Since 2010, wages have dropped by an average of 2.2% a year in real terms. So far, the ‘recovery’ hasn’t made any difference – in the third quarter of 2013, real wages were 1.5% lower than twelve months previously.