Slow pay growth continues - XpertHR

PAY DATA

Slow pay growth continues - XpertHR

Pay deals continue to lag behind inflation, according to the latest figures released by pay specialists XpertHR. In the three months to the end of May 2012, XpertHR’s headline measure of pay settlements for the whole economy (the median basic pay award) was 2%, unchanged from April but down sharply from 2.6% in the first three months of the year. But pay deals in the private sector currently stand at 2.5%.

Key findings

The survey is based on details of 322 pay awards with effective dates between 1 March and 31 May 2012, covering 4.15 million employees. Other key findings include:

• The median pay award in the public sector remains a pay freeze.
• Overall, 19% of pay settlements resulted in a wage freeze (15% of private sector deals, compared with 53% of public sector deals).
• More than a third (37%) of settlements were worth the same as the increase paid to the same group of employees in 2011; 34% were higher; and 29% lower.
• Manufacturing pay awards are running at 2.5% (at the median), compared with 2% in the services sector.

Analysis of pay awards effective in the first five months of 2012 reveals some significant differences by sector:

• the median private sector pay award stands at 2.5%
• increases range from a median 2% in the not-for-profit sector, to 3.5% among transport and communication firms.

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A final word

"Employees in the manufacturing sector are enjoying the highest pay awards this year, but for most workers pay increases remain below pre-recession levels. The 3.5% median increase in the transport and communication sector is the only one that touches the levels seen prior to 2008, with many sectors - including retail, general services, paper and printing, and not-for-profit - recording pay awards well below par.

"Despite an increasing number of pay deals worth 3% or more, there are also a significant number sticking to wage freezes. Combined, these are keeping our overall median pay increase subdued in the first half of the year." - 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.