The bombshell proof your pint is NOT getting more expensive (even if it does cost you an eye-watering £8!)
Believe it or not, beer is not actually getting more expensive.
Although some pubs now charge an eye-watering £8 for a pint, analysis shows the average Brit can still afford to buy four lagers from an hours' work.
That work-to-beer ratio has stayed relatively flat over the last 40 years.
A pint of bitter cost 81p while a lager was 92p when modern records began in 1987, when Margaret Thatcher was still Prime Minister.
At the time, the average industrial wage was £147, roughly £3.87 an hour.
It meant the typical worker could swallow between 4.2-4.8 pints for an hour of their endeavours.
The average wage in 2024 has increased to £696, the equivalent of £18.32-an-hour, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Bitter nowadays sets drinkers back £3.92 per pint.
Lager drinkers, however, have to dig deeper, handing over £4.79 for a pint.
So over the course of almost 40 years, bitter drinkers can still enjoy four pints for an hour's work.
The ratio has dipped just below four for lager drinkers, however.
The ONS keep track on the average price of a pint of draught lager or bitter as part of their basket of goods to produce the Consumer Price Index.
In financial terms, between 1987 and 2024, the average price of a pint of bitter rose by 384 per cent, compared with a 478 per cent for lager.
Meanwhile, wages, on average have increased by 373 per cent.
By comparison, according to the Land Registry, the average price of a house in the UK in February 1987 was £35,956 rising to £291,828 – an increase of 712 per cent.
In her first budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced she was cutting the duty on draught beer served in pubs to take a 'penny off the pint'.
Yet the move was branded 'an irrelevance' by industry bosses because Ms Reeves also increased employer's National Insurance Contributions (NICs).
Tim Dewey, chief executive of the Landlord brewer, argued that any price decrease brought about by the reduction in duty would be immediately cancelled out due to increased tax rates for employers.
Duty for other types of alcohol will increase in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI).
In June 1987, the average wage passed the £4 an hour mark, while bitter and lager cost £0.82 and £0.92 respectively.
By December 1989, the average wage had increased to more than £5 an hour, with the pint costing £1 and £1.12.
By May 2000, a pint of lager had reached the £2 landmark – although wages were sitting at £8.19.
It took another four years for bitter to cost on average more than £2, by which time wages had risen to £9.51 an hour.
In April 2006, a pint of lager cost on average £2.50, while wages stood at £10.40 an hour – keeping to the four pints an hour ratio.
When the price of a pint of lager passed the £4 mark in March 2022, wages were on average £16-an-hour.
Unfortunately, the ONS figures do not track prices regionally, as there are dramatic differences in the cost of goods and services in various parts of the country.
However, some of these increased prices are mitigated by higher earning potential.
Most watched News videos
- New video shows Epstein laughing and chasing young women
- British Airways passengers turn flight into a church service
- Epstein describes himself as a 'tier one' sexual predator
- Skier dressed as Chewbacca brutally beaten in mass brawl
- Two schoolboys plummet out the window of a moving bus
- Holly Valance is shut down by GB News for using slur
- Police dog catches bag thief who pushed woman to the floor
- Melinda Gates says Bill Gates must answer questions about Epstein
- JD Vance turns up heat on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
- Buddhist monks in Thailand caught with a stash of porn
- China unveils 'Star Wars' warship that can deploy unmanned jets
- Trump slams Kaitlan Collins for lack of smiling over Epstein grilling
