of inflation into account, pay is actually down 3%, hit by the rising cost of goods and services. take a look at this chart the red line shows what s happened to people s wages over the past decade, you can see a big dip during the covid pandemic, followed by a spike as restrictions lifted. but now take a look at the blue line, that s inflation and it gives you an idea of how wages have not been keeping pace with price rises at several points over the past ten years. and things are even more difficult if you are in the public sector, here s our business correspondent andy verity on that. what you re looking at here is market forces. there is a very interesting difference between the pay rises in the private sector and the public sector. the public sector, less than 2% on average. and that s going to cause problems for public sectors employers who want to recruit people to do importantjobs, teaching, nursing etc. when you compare it to the private sector, for example, financial servic