PAY DATA
Year ends with low pay growth
As 2012 draws to an end, there’s still no sign of a sustained pick-up in the level of pay awards. Instead, 2% emerged as the benchmark pay award during autumn, according to data released today from pay specialists XpertHR.
XpertHR’s measure of pay awards - the median basic pay increase which excludes performance-related pay, bonuses and progression payments - remains at 2% in the three months to the end of November 2012, unchanged on the reading for the previous three-month period.
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What’s more, there is no let-up in organisations freezing pay for employees - almost a quarter (23.7%) of pay awards in the three months to the end of November 2012 resulted in a pay freeze.
The figures come just ahead of the busy January wage bargaining period, when around a quarter of all pay settlements take effect. January is key for pay awards in the manufacturing and production sectors - employers in these sectors predict a 3% median pay award during 2013, says XpertHR.
A final word
"Pay awards have ended the year on a low note, with the 2% median increase well below trend, and inflation. Even with the best intentions, employers will be bound by what they can afford to pay over the next year. Private sector employers are predicting pay increases in the region of 2.5% over the coming year, and we expect a continuation of pay freezes for some and few awards worth more than 3%." - Sheila Attwood, XpertHR Pay and Benefits editor.
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The research is based on the “largest sample of pay deals collected in the UK – every year XpertHR collects details of in excess of 1,600 pay settlements”. The latest quarterly analysis is based on 110 pay awards effective in the three months to the end of November 2012. Of these, 93 provide an identifiable increase in the lowest adult rate of pay, and form the sample for the main analysis.
XpertHR 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.” For more information visit www.xperthr.co.uk.