With the latest inflation figures expected to show that average earnings have now been trailing rising prices for three years, the TUC has calculated that a worker on a median salary of around £25,000 has already lost nearly £4,000 since December 2009, when earnings first fell behind prices.

Real wage growth was expected to return in 2013. However, in its latest update last December, the Office for Budget Responsibility put its forecast for real wage growth back until 2014.

Real wages are now expected to fall for another year, which means the average worker is facing a further £2,000 pay cut by 2013, bringing the total loss to £6,000 by the time earnings start to rise again in 2014.

Frances O’Grady, TUC General Secretary, said: “People have been getting poorer for the last three years and unless we see a sudden upsurge in economic activity it looks like the pain is set to continue.

“This massive squeeze on earnings, combined with sharp cuts to vital welfare benefits and tax credits, is hurting millions of people with food, transport and energy bills taking up an even larger share of family budgets.”

The TUC says that the wage loss is even worse for those working in the public sector, as they have taken a pay freeze for the last few years and will see wage rises capped at 1% for the next two years.

O’Grady added: “We urgently need decent wage rises, which will feed through into more consumer spending and wider economic growth.

“But with the government still committed to self-defeating austerity, the prospect of a return to healthy pay rises is looking further and further away.”

The TUC is concerned that the UK’s living standards crisis is putting people’s finances under immense pressure and holding back the economy by depressing consumer spending.