PAY packets in St Helens are worth an average of £56 a week less in real terms compared to 2008, according to a report by the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

The analysis shows which local authority areas have suffered the biggest hit to real wages - wages once the cost of living has been taken into account - since the financial crash a decade ago.

People working in St Helens are earning 13 per cent less in real terms compared to 2008, the report suggests.

The TUC says that is the equivalent of £56 less per week in an average pay packet.

St Helens has been among the hardest hit areas in the North West, according to the analysis.

But there have been sharp falls across the region in both poor and affluent areas.

Real wages are still lower than a decade ago in 34 of the region’s 43 local authority areas, adds the report. 

And only four areas have seen the value of wages increase by 5 per cent or more since 2008.

The TUC suggests it is the worst pay squeeze in 200 years.

It adds that the average worker in the North West has lost out on £14,230 in real earnings since 2008. 

TUC Regional Secretary Lynn Collins said: “The government has failed to tackle Britain’s cost of living crisis. As a result many families across the region will be worse off this Christmas than a decade ago.

“While pay packets have recovered in most leading economies, wage growth in the UK is stuck in the slow lane. 

“Ministers need to wake up and get wages rising faster. This means giving all public sector workers the pay rise they have earned and giving unions the right to bargain in more workplaces.

“And it means boosting the minimum wage to £10 an hour as soon as possible.”

"The numbers in the North West also tell a story - local economies that are trying different things such as Preston and Salford are starting to see improvements in pay. Places like Fylde, having suffered during the recession, have now taken a second hit as well paid jobs in manufacturing and public services have been lost."

Commenting on the national picture to the Guardian newspaper, a government spokesman said: “The UK’s jobs market has never been stronger, employment is at a record high with more people in work in every region of the UK since 2010 and wages are now rising at their fastest in a decade.

“We have cut income tax for 31 million people, and through the national living wage we have helped to deliver the fastest wage growth in 20 years for over two million of the lowest-paid workers.”