Cost Of Living Increase ?

I found an old payslip the other day, in November 2009 I was taking home £120 more per month the I did in December 2017, I do the same job, albeit with even more duties piled on top and far more knowledge required, the same hours etc.

But of course according to the media I am one of those highly paid civil servants who sits at a desk all day doing nothing whilst waiting for my gold-plated pension, when in reality I work shifts over 24 hours in a very high stress filthy and physically demanding environment. We were conned by our department into going into the pay freeze a year earlier than all other departments on the basis we would come out of it a year earlier too, see what happened there!

I know plenty in the private sector have had it hard, at the bottom end particularly with low wages, zero hours contracts etc, so it seems to me like pretty much EVERYONE below the supposed 'average' wage has been made today for the mistakes of the rich and powerful, so if you have managed to get a pay increase over the last 10 years or so be grateful for the crumbs they have thrown you...

Not the norm. although if you are in a workplace pension the minimum employer contribution goes up from 1% to 2% so even of the employee isn't giving you a payrise, it may well be costing them more to employ you.

I think one issue is that employers will base pay rises on what they can afford, not on what employees need / costs of living. Some things which cause cost of living to rise will also mean higher overheads for employers, but won't necessarily mean any increase in income.

I don't think I've ever worked anywhere that gave automatic or routine costs of living increases.