Pay awards in the three months to the end of June 2012 are confirmed at a median 2%, according to the latest data from pay specialists XpertHR.
However, the divergence between pay awards in the public and private sectors remains – pay awards in the public sector continue to be stuck at zero, while in the private sector awards are more buoyant, at a median 2.4%.
The profile of pay awards in the private sector remains broadly unchanged:
- 14.6% of all settlements in the private sector over the past three months resulted in a pay freeze;
- the most common pay award was 2%, awarded in 18.3% of the basic pay settlements; and
- 3% was also popular, accounting for 17.9% of basic pay awards.
Looking to pay award levels for the remainder of the year, a forthcoming survey of the British manufacturing sector from XpertHR will show that manufacturers are predicting pay awards of just 2.5% in the year ahead. This compares with a median 2.6% increase recorded by XpertHR in the sector over the past year. Pay awards in the services sector have been consistently lower – over the past year, the median pay award in the services sector has stood at just 2%.
However, pay awards now lie just 0.8 percentage points below the level of retail prices index (RPI) inflation – the smallest gap since November 2008 (and they have been below inflation since December 2009).
XpertHR Pay and Benefits editor Sheila Attwood said:
"With the busy April pay round now behind us, we can look forward to how pay settlement levels will shape up over the remainder of the year. However, with the third quarter of negative economic growth now confirmed, and the labour market remaining weak, there is no sign of any upward movement in pay settlement levels over the coming months."
