PAY DATA
Over half of pay deals are at 3% or above - IDSPay.co.uk
The latest pay analysis from IDSPay.co.uk shows a “consolidation of pay awards at around the 3% mark”. The IDSPay.co.uk headline measure of pay settlements (the median level for the whole economy) is at 3% for the three months to the end of February 2012. This compares with a figure of 2.5% a year ago.
IDS says: “This is in part due to higher settlements in industries for which the business outlook has improved, such as vehicle manufacturing and heavy engineering.”
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The other key statistics are these:
Just under three-fifths of the pay awards at 4% or above in the latest analysis are new deals.
The remainder were awarded under the latter stages of long-term deals.
Awards at this level are concentrated in vehicles and components manufacturing, heavy engineering and transport.
A fifth of all settlements are pitched at 3% exactly.
The proportion of pay freezes is slightly lower than it was in 2011, with 7% of settlements resulting in pay freezes in the three months to February 2012 compared with 8% this time last year.
Summary of key settlement data
For the three months to the end of February 2012, based on 87 settlements covering 337,000 employees in total, the key IDS statistics are these:
Whole economy median: 3.0%
Whole economy average: 3.0%
Whole economy inter-quartile range: 2.5% to 3.5%
Private sector median: 3.0%
Manufacturing and production median: 3.0%
Private services median: 3.0%
A final word
“It appears that 3% is becoming established as the benchmark figure for private sector pay awards in 2012. This is higher than last year, but remains below inflation for the moment. Higher-level awards – at 4% or above – are being made in sectors where prospects have brightened recently.
“Some of this reflects pressure from employees for some sort of recompense after a period of low or no pay increases, and as inflation comes down, some of these workers have been rewarded with above-inflation pay rises.” - Ken Mulkearn, Editor of IDS Pay Report, whose staff collect the data on pay settlements.
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 to see a demonstration or to sign up for a free trial.
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.