PAY DATA
Gap between public and private sector pay awards widens
Pay settlements across the private sector continue to centre on 2%, according to the latest data from IDSPay.co.uk. But the median pay award in the public sector has fallen to 0.8% in the three months to the end of May 2010, down from 1% in the three months to April 2010.
“This is the result of an increase in the number of pay freezes and lower awards applied in the public sector over this period, ahead of the government’s announcement of a two-year pay freeze from 2011,” says IDS.
In the private sector, freezes now account for just one in ten of settlements, while in the public sector two-fifths of the pay reviews that took place in the three months to May resulted in wage freezes.
Pay freezes are now the most common outcome of pay reviews in the public sector, with over 1.3 million public sector workers having their pay frozen in this three-month period.
In the private sector, pay freezes recorded in the latest quarter were for the most part confined to care providers and electronics firms.
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Three-fifths of pay settlements now at 2% or higher
Across the economy as a whole, the number of higher-level pay settlements has increased. The most common level of settlement is between 2% and 2.99%, with two-fifths (40%) of awards falling into this range. A further fifth of awards are at 3% and above, with many of these higher awards in chemicals, transport and utilities companies.
Summary of key settlement data
For the three months to the end of May 2010, based on 127 settlements covering 2.1 million employees in total, the key statistics are these:
Whole economy median: 2.0%
Whole economy average: 1.8%
Whole economy inter-quartile range: 1.0% to 2.5%
Manufacturing and production median: 2%
Private services median: 2%
Public sector median: 0.8%
A final word
“Our latest findings on pay settlements are of a piece with the recent Budget, the focus of which was public sector spending cuts and a two-year pay freeze, starting from next year for most staff. But our figures show that the freeze has already begun and there is every prospect that some groups, such as local authority staff in England and Wales, will face a three-year freeze.” - Ken Mulkearn, Editor of IDS Pay Report.
Want to know more?
IDSPay.co.uk is an online source of all the remuneration data collected by IDS, on pay settlements, pay levels and executive compensation. Visit www.IDSPay.co.uk.
IDS Pay Report, published fortnightly, is the “UK's leading source of research and analysis on pay and benefits across the economy”.
Incomes Data Services is the “leading UK information and research service on employment issues, providing a range of publications for employers, trade unions, government departments and other agencies”. For more details visit www.incomesdata.co.uk.