Typical Bullcrap reporting by Financial Times. Most of this so-called decrease was in fact the rise in gas prices. Wages were in fact up but they did not keep up with inflation for the first three months. Financial Times as usual blow all this crap out of proportion and goes into their usual fear-monger bullshit. Financial Times is not worthy of wiping my ass with.
Cognitive dissonance on your part. What you described is a defacto fall in real wages.