We use cookies where necessary to allow us to understand how people interact with our website and content, so that we can continue to improve our service.
We only ever receive anonymous information, and cannot track you across other websites. View our privacy policy
A new Attainability Index has been launched by economists and researchers to help fill the cost of living data gap and quantify real living standards.
The methodology and a key findings report, jointly published today by Best for Britain and the New Economics Foundation (NEF), calculate and compare how many hours on average individuals in a range of occupations and at a variety of income levels would need to work to purchase goods, services and attain social participation after essential spending.
This analysis is distilled into the new ‘work hours’ metric, combining time prices and the residual income approach to living standards, which demonstrates why a “high income in one profession 20 years ago won’t guarantee you the same quality of life today”. It makes the case that: “Measuring prices this way gives the cost of living debate a more relatable vocabulary than abstract, economy-wide measures of wage growth and price changes.”
The study also tracks how this has changed over the past 20 years, comparing historical price and wage data from 2006 to 2025. It identifies a squeezed middle, with cost pressures on average-income occupations – such as accountants – experiencing slower wage growth in the face of price spikes on items such as cars and holidays.
Titled ‘Attainability Index: Key Findings Report’ , the paper also sets out how “years of weak wage growth and rising prices have put people’s ability to attain the things that matter under increasing strain”. It argues that the “ability to pay for a night out, a holiday, a new car, or a new outfit, are all important to taking a full part in society” and that these things becoming less attainable over time affects society in “ways that matter to people’s lives”.
Cal Roscow, Executive Director of Campaigns at Best for Britain, and project lead, said:
“The UK, and much of the western world, finds itself facing a global cost of living ‘crisis’ calcifying into an unsustainable new normal – but detangling this web of economic change with our existing methods of analysis failed to tell the real story of the past 20-30 years.
“Buried in the shifting sands of the past few decades lie core problems: vastly differing wage and price trajectories; the costs and value of goods and services shifting in unexpected directions; and different groups experiencing economic change and social participation in hugely varied and unpredictable ways.
“The Attainability Index arose to open a new window onto this reality and offer researchers, academics and campaigners a new language to convey it in; to begin truly understanding the problems we face, so we can work together to better solve them.”
George Bangham, Head of Social Policy at NEF, said:
“People judge the economy by whether a night out, a holiday or a car is within reach. Our new Index shows rises in the minimum wage have made life more affordable for the lowest-paid – but essentials, above all housing, still swallow most of their take-home pay.
“A minimum-wage worker renting in the South-east must work 30 hours to afford a night out. And for people in their 30s, higher housing costs mean a family holiday now takes more hours of work than in 2006, even when wages have kept pace with prices. Government building more social homes and cutting energy bills would help put a fuller life within reach.”