Unions have held up the wages paid to members of the legal sector as proof of Britain’s growing earnings chasm.

The TUC has today published a report that states that judges, barristers and solicitors have seen their salaries more than double since 1978 in real terms.

The report, entitled ‘Britain’s Livelihood Crisis’, claims that legal professionals are members of a ‘rich minority taking an ever larger slice of the UK’s dwindling earnings cake’.

The wage rise of 114%, adjusted for inflation, from 1978 to 2008, was second only to the increasing amounts paid to medical practitioners, who saw earnings grow by 153%.

But over the same period, earnings for the likes of bakers, fork lift truck drivers and packers have fallen in real terms.

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, said: ‘Britain has got much wealthier over the last three decades.

'But while a small financial elite have grabbed an ever larger share for themselves, many people on low and middle incomes have seen barely any improvement in their incomes, while some have even seen their take-home pay fall.

‘People often cite the recession as the source of this income squeeze, but a livelihood crisis has been brewing in Britain for decades.

'The financial crash has exposed decades of limp wage growth, offset by soaring household debt.’

The report highlights that a deterioration of middle-paid and skilled jobs has broadened the gap between rich and poor, and brought about a rise in jobs offering poor wages and security.

The proportion of workers whose wages are at least a third less than the median (currently £11.09 an hour) has almost doubled from 12% in 1977 to 22% in 2009.