Millennials are set to become the first generation to earn less than their predecessors, new research suggests.
The Resolution Foundation found that under-35s earned £8,000 less in their twenties than Generation X workers.
The thinktank defines Generation X as those born between 1966 and 1980 and millennials as those born between 1980 and 2000.
If wages for millennials follow the same path as Generation X, average career earnings will be about £825,000.
That would make them the first generation to earn less than their predecessors over the course of their working lives.
Even if millennials' wages improved rapidly like those of their baby boomer parents born after World War Two, their lifetime earnings would be about £890,000, according to the foundation.
That sum would be just 7% more than Generation X, and only a third of the size of the pay progress that Generation X should enjoy over the baby boomers.
The Resolution Foundation also warned that a post-Brexit recession could cut millennials' earnings even further.
Its research found that some of the pay squeeze was due to under-35s entering the job market as the recession hit, but it also concluded that generational pay progress had ground to a halt even before the financial crisis struck in 2007/8.