A pay increase below inflation is actually a decrease.
We need a word other than increase to make it clearer to those less mathematically minded what's happening.
My proposal is that we call it a pay insult.
But it would be nice if the word is less emotionally charged such that it can make its way into official wording.
Is there already a word for this. There are phrases but it needs to be short enough to use in a normal conversation. Common usage would mean everyone is aware they are actually getting a pay cut without having to explain how inflation works.
Unless anyone has a better suggestion I will be using “pay insult”
For example.
Amazon has offered it's workers a pay insult of £0.35