Resolution Foundation Podcasts

Britain is stagnating. Productivity growth is flatlining, workers today are earning the same wages as their predecessors in 2007, and living standards growth had slowed to a crawl even before today’s cost of living crisis. So we need a clear strategy for returning to rising, and widely shared, prosperity. Against that backdrop, it is important to understand what a return to growth will, and will not deliver. Some doubt that a return to growth is possible, while others question if it is even desirable – arguing that productivity growth doesn’t raise the wages of ordinary workers. Beyond growth, the roles of policies to redistribute (including through the benefits system) or predistribute (with a more equal sharing of rewards from the labour market) are hotly debated. Does productivity growth boost ordinary workers’ pay packets? Would a return to rising wages help reduce inequality or drive it higher? Should policy makers focus on raising employment rates and the minimum wage, or on changes to the benefit syste