Real wages have been falling by 2.2% a year in the longest sustained period of falling real wages in the UK on record

Real wages have been falling consistently since 2010, the longest period for 50 years, according to the Office for National Statistics, adding that low productivity growth seems to be pushing wages down.

Real wage growth averaged 2.9% in the 1970s and 1980s, 1.5% in the 1990s, 1.2% in 2000s, but has fallen to minus 2.2% since the first quarter of 2010, the ONS figures showed.

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "Over the last four years British workers have suffered an unprecedented real wage squeeze.

"Worryingly, average pay rises have been getter weaker in every decade since the 1980s, despite increases in productivity, growth and profits. Unless things change, the 2010s could be the first ever decade of falling wages."

The ONS study followed a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) which said that while the fall in household incomes has now probably come to a halt, living standards are still "dramatically" down on what they were before the global financial crisis hit in 2008.

The IFS analysis suggested "there is little reason to expect a strong recovery in living standards over the next few years". According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, real earnings are not expected to return to their 2009-10 levels until 2018-19.

The government said last week that most British workers have seen their take-home pay rise in real terms in the past year.

Jobs website Adzuna showed in a report that salaries dropped to a 16-month low in December, equal to a real-term drop in wages of £2,136. In the year to December, salaries fell in every region of the UK aside from Wales, where salaries have risen 4.1% over the same period. Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said: "The recovery in the jobs market is far from over. The great news is unemployment has fallen at record levels, but wages are still stuck in a post-recession hangover – while the backlog of employees waiting for the right time to change jobs is clearing, salary levels are yet to catch up."