Report: Study, Work, Progress, Repeat?

This report attempts to understand why millennials have so far made no earnings progress on generation X before them. Published by the Resolution Foundation, it is the fifth paper for the Intergenerational Commission, which was launched to explore intergenerational fairness.

Key findings:

• Stagnating pay growth in the mid-2000s followed by the financial crisis from 2009 to 2014, meant the promise that successive generations would earn significantly more at the same age than those who came before them, is under threat.
• A broad range of factors were found to have contributed to stagnating pay growth between cohorts and slower wage progression within them. These included higher educational attainment, changing occupational structures, a decline in job mobility and the impact of lower pay rises when employees stayed with firms for long periods.

The report explores the population and jobs market changes that underpin the faltering earnings improvements, and the mechanisms via which yearly pay increases have slowed down.