Top Stories
UK employers offer average 2.8% pay rise to staff – survey
Published by Wanda Rich
Posted on April 18, 2022
Editorial & Advertiser disclosure
Global Banking and Finance Review is an online platform offering news, analysis, and opinion on the latest trends, developments, and innovations in the banking and finance industry worldwide. The platform covers a diverse range of topics, including banking, insurance, investment, wealth management, fintech, and regulatory issues. The website publishes news, press releases, opinion and advertorials on various financial organizations, products and services which are commissioned from various Companies, Organizations, PR agencies, Bloggers etc. These commissioned articles are commercial in nature. This is not to be considered as financial advice and should be considered only for information purposes. It does not reflect the views or opinion of our website and is not to be considered an endorsement or a recommendation. We cannot guarantee the accuracy or applicability of any information provided with respect to your individual or personal circumstances. Please seek Professional advice from a qualified professional before making any financial decisions. We link to various third-party websites, affiliate sales networks, and to our advertising partners websites. When you view or click on certain links available on our articles, our partners may compensate us for displaying the content to you or make a purchase or fill a form. This will not incur any additional charges to you. To make things simpler for you to identity or distinguish advertised or sponsored articles or links, you may consider all articles or links hosted on our site as a commercial article placement. We will not be responsible for any loss you may suffer as a result of any omission or inaccuracy on the website.
LONDON (Reuters) – British employers are offering annual pay settlements worth an average increase of 2.8% to staff, well below the rate of inflation, a survey showed on Monday.
The Chartered Management Institute said many businesses were wary of offering pay rises when other costs were soaring and some feared that consumer demand would soon falter.
“We’ve not really seen the full effects of the Ukraine conflict filter through yet, and it’s clear that pressure is mounting across the board and there are undoubtedly some rocky times ahead,” Anthony Painter, the CMI’s director of policy, said.
Pay settlements in the private sector averaged 3.2%, compared with 2.4% in the public sector, the CMI data showed, roughly in line with other similar surveys.
While bigger pay rises would help ease the cost of living squeeze being felt by most British workers, the Bank of England is concerned that hefty pay rises could make it harder to get inflation back to target.
Consumer price inflation hit a 30-year high of 7.0% in March, and some economists think it could reach double digits later this year.
The BoE’s own survey of employers pointed to pay settlements of almost 5% this year, far higher than the usual trend.
So far there has been little sign of increases on that scale.
Last month, pay data company XpertHR said the average award in the three months to the end of February was 3%, the joint-highest since 2008.
Three percent was also the average pay rise that businesses planned for 2022 as a whole, the Chartered Institute of Pay and Development (CIPD) said.
Average annual wage growth excluding bonuses — which unlike pay settlement data includes raises due to job moves and promotions — was 4.0% in the three months to February, according to official data published last week.
The CMI survey showed only about half of firms surveyed between March 31 and April 5 had definitely decided to raise pay this year, with 48% either deciding against a raise or unsure.
By contrast, the XpertHR and CIPD surveys have previously shown less than 10% of employers intended to freeze pay.
(Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by William Schomberg)