Answering these questions is much easier said than done though and now, thanks to the level of indecision around, UK businesses are becoming more and more affected. With 2020 just around the corner, many companies throughout the UK are now understandably looking to the future, trying to predict what might happen in the year to come.
One such area under scrutiny is UK salaries and how these will change over the coming 12 months. In this article, we take a look at the latest statistics and reports to determine how each major working sector will be affected by the changing times.
Professional Services
Back in October 2019, the UK government announced plans to increase the National Living Wage to £10.50 an hour by the year 2025. While it may be a few years before it reaches that level, over the coming year, the incline will start and minimum wages will begin to increase. This will largely impact employees who work in the professional services, such as hairdressers, cleaners, carers, kitchen assistants, bar staff and sales assistants.
The minimum wage currently stands at £8.21 an hour for workers aged 25 and over. However, this doesn’t meet the ‘costs of living’, according to research by the charity the Living Wage Foundation, who estimate that the minimum wage should be raised to £10.55 in London and £9 across the rest of the UK.
While having a planned increase in wage inevitably sounds like a good thing, the plans have been met with a lot of trepidation from businesses. With the UK set to top the table for world minimum wages, many companies are concerned that the increased wages won’t correspond to an increase in productivity, meaning they’ll become less profitable as a result.
The government also plan to extend the higher minimum wage to workers aged between 21 and 24, promoting another area for concern; many studies have established a number of negative effects when offering minimum wages to younger workers.
Tradesmen
According to data from ECA International, there is expected to be a 1.1% rise in employee salaries over the coming year – across all sectors. That equates to approximately £28 per month before tax, or an annual increase of £334.62.
While an increase may seem like a good thing, unfortunately the rate in which ‘real salaries’ are increasing is a lot slower than it was between the years 2018 and 2019. In other words, next year’s forecasted ‘real-terms’ salary is predicted to actually be £20.44 less than British employees received in 2019.
However, this isn’t necessarily true when it comes to working as a tradesman. As you can see below, certain trades – such as electricians, plumbers, plasterers, bricklayers and painters – are expected to see much bigger salary increases over the coming year.
Source: Trade Skills 4U
Education
Working in education is one of those careers that will always be needed. Students are always going to need to be taught, after all, and teachers are always going to have students available to teach. But how will the industry change over the coming months and years?
Back in September 2019, the UK government announced its plans to inject a cash boost of £14 billion into schools in England, starting from next year. Coupled with this announcement, teachers were said to expect a starting salary increase to £30,000 within the next three years, offering a pay rise of just over £6,000. This move was aimed at combatting the ‘growing sense of crisis’ in teacher recruitment, battling against the declining number of secondary school teacher applications.
Technology
While Bladerunner’s predicted world in 2019 turned out to be very different to reality, technological advances have come thick and fast over the coming years. As we move into 2020, that doesn’t look set to change, with many businesses and industries becoming increasingly reliant on embedding new technologies.
Artificial intelligence (AI), for example, is an area of substantial interest for many businesses. In fact, many companies have already implemented its use in their systems and working processes, gathering substantial amounts of data with ease. But, what does this mean in terms of UK jobs?
With more companies becoming reliant on technology, many jobs are at risk of disappearing – replacing workers with robotic or internet-based equivalents. However, it’s not all doom and gloom, as the rise of technology will also bring with it a number of new jobs which, if you’re an expert in your field, promise a healthy salary to boot. Robot programmers, AI engineers, machine learning analysts and bot controllers all look like future roles, set to change the future of the workplace.