“What is now widely recognized is that slow wage growth has become an obstacle to achieving sustainable economic growth,” ILO director-general Guy Ryder wrote in the two-yearly Global Wage Report.
Geneva: Global wage grew by 1.8% in 2017, down from 2.4% in 2016 and the slowest rate since the global financial crisis in 2008, the International Labour Organization said in its two-yearly Global Wage Report on Monday.
In the past 20 years, average real wages have almost tripled in emerging and developing G20 countries, but they have risen by only 9% in advanced G20 countries, the ILO said.
Pay growth across the G-20 group, whose leaders are preparing to meet this week in Argentina, declined to 2.1 percent from 2.7 percent in 2016. Workers in advanced nations saw the weakest gains, with wage increases of 0.4 percent. That’s the least since 2014 and compares to growth of 4.3 among emerging economies.
“It’s puzzling that in high-income economies we see slow wage growth alongside a recovery in GDP growth and falling unemployment,” said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder. “Early indications suggest that slow wage growth continues in 2018.”
