2012 pay awards at 2.6% - XpertHR

PAY DATA

2012 pay awards at 2.6%: XpertHR

Pay awards so far in 2012 stand at 2.6%, as measured by XpertHR’s median level of pay reviews for the whole economy. The research reveals “pay awards in the first quarter of the year are holding up well”. The current 2.6% median compares with a 2% figure recorded for 2011. The findings are based on details of 207 pay awards effective between 1 January and 31 March 2012, all but one of which is in the private sector.

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Key findings

The spread of pay awards remains narrow, with half of all pay awards worth between 2% and 3%.
Pay freezes are still a feature, with around one pay review in ten resulting in no increase for staff.
Pay awards in the manufacturing sector (2.6%) have fallen, and are now almost in line with those in the services sector (2.5%).
Pay awards continue to lag inflation – RPI at 3.6% in March stands one percentage point above the level of settlements. Pay awards have now been worth less than inflation since December 2009.

A final word

"Private-sector pay awards are expected to retain their current level around 2.6% over the next couple of months. However, in the public sector there is a very different picture, with the pay freeze continuing for another year. The gap between pay awards and inflation is only going to close considerably if inflation falls as there is no sign of a significant rise in the level of pay awards." - Sheila Attwood, XpertHR Pay and Benefits editor.

Want to know more?

XpertHR, formerly known an Industrial Relations Services (IRS), is the “UK's most comprehensive online source of legal compliance, good practice and benchmarking information made available to HR professionals as a single subscription service”. It offers detailed statistics and analysis of recent pay settlements across the UK. XpertHR collects details of pay settlements for around 1,500 employee groups each year. Its database contains more than 28,000 settlements. For more information visit www.xperthr.co.uk.