PAY DATA
Private sector predicts pay rises of 2.5% in the year ahead - XpertHR
Private sector employers are predicting pay deals of 2.5% in the year ahead, according to a survey by pay specialists XpertHR. If not-for-profit organisations are included in the analysis, the projected rise falls to 2%.
XpertHR says: “The slow economic recovery is continuing to influence organisations, with pay freezes and redundancies forecast by some, but a pay rise is on the cards for most employees.”
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Key survey findings
More than three-quarters of respondents plan to award a pay rise on their normal review date.
Around a tenth of organisations forecast a pay freeze.
Half of all organisations surveyed expect to award rises worth between 2% and 3%.
Employers in the manufacturing and production sector forecast a median 2.5% pay rise over the next year, compared with 2% among private sector services firms.
Almost a quarter of respondents say pension costs generally will be a downward influence on pay awards and 17% say pension costs due to the introduction of auto-enrolment are likely to restrain pay.
Employers do not feel under pressure to compensate for several years of subdued pay deals - only 17% of organisations think the 2012 pay deal needs to makes up for previous low awards.
A final word
"Although we might expect employees to be tiring of low pay rises or pay freezes, our survey respondents indicate that to date they have understood about the economic challenges that organisations face. However, a median 2% increase during 2012 will result in another of year of below-inflation pay rises." - Sheila Attwood, XpertHR Pay and Benefits editor.
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Title: “Another year of pay restraint forecast by private sector employers”, XpertHR upfront, 23 March 2012.
Survey details: The survey is based on 259 responses from private and voluntary sector organisations, employing 312,211 people in total. Data was submitted in January and February 2012. The not-for-profit sector, which tends to take its lead from the public sector in terms of pay awards, accounts for more than a fifth of respondents to this survey.
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.