Recruiters Facing Minimum Wage Bombshell

Recruitment companies and HR departments are being warned about a forecasted 5% rise to next years minimum wage, which could take the average wage over 5.50 per hour (after taking into account employees aged from 17 years to over 22).

The forecasts have been made by Greater Manchester based PAYEpeople, who using dedicated software spanning various sectors across the UK, have successfully been able to predict and gauge rises over the past nine years.

Predictions are made through the matching of actual hourly paid wages across the UK, taking payroll data from over 6000 employees within the Retail sector.

Last year their knowledge of actual wages paid helped the company to predict a rise to within a penny of the now known 5.27/hour average figure, providing vital advance warning to the DTI and major retailers now using these statistics to aid financial planning.

Head of PAYEpeople Andrew McNicholas says the rise would have significant implications for retailers all over the UK, particularly those recruiting temps and hourly workers.

ìThis year retailers in the UK only paid out an average rise of 2.6% 5.14/hour to the current 5.27/hour.

ìPrevious experience and forecasting suggests that because of this the National Minimum Wages will increase by 5% from 5.35/hour to over 5.50/hour.

ìAs low end wages approach 6/hour for hourly workers, it will also inevitably force an upward shift of salaried staff, placing an even greater squeeze on profits.î

The company began wage forecasting nine years ago mainly within its core sector of retail.

The accuracy results from PAYEpeople calculating actual pay values from the weekly and monthly payrolls processed on behalf of hundreds of clients throughout the UK, representing data from over six thousand individual hourly-paid employees.

The data is then sorted by region in order to provide comparisons of how rates vary across the country.

For a full copy of the report ñ and to assess variations within the UK ñ visit: