WAGES are still £800 a year lower than they were a decade ago and people in their twenties and thirties are affected the most by slow pay growth, analysis by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) revealed today.

Even though all workers’ wages are lower than they were in 2008, millennials have been hit hardest, the IFS found.

Median yearly earnings fell to £23,327 last year, 3.2 per cent lower than before the financial crisis a decade ago, when the average wage was £24,088.

Those aged 30 to 39 have seen their pay packets shrink the most, with earnings down by 7.2 per cent to an average of £26,442.

Those aged 22 to 29 have suffered a 4.6 per cent loss to £21,408.

People in their sixties have lost the least — at £18,637, their earnings are just £129 lower than they were in 2008, a reduction of 0.7 per cent.

Those in their fifties took a 1.8 per cent hit, leaving them with £25,069.

The IFS said: “The UK economy has broken record after record, and not generally in a good way — record low earnings growth, record low interest rates, record low productivity growth, record public borrowing followed by record cuts in public spending.”

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: “This dramatic slump in the wages of workers shows the disastrous impact of nearly a decade of austerity on living standards, with people massively losing out during the years of Tory rule.

“Brutal Conservative pay restraint and austerity has hit workers in the pocket and is further proof that the Tories cannot be trusted on the economy.”