The UK is now at a record high for the number of people in employment, but there hasn’t been much of an increase in wagesThe first three months of 2017 saw median pay awards remaining steady at 2%, indicating that we are in a stable period for employee remuneration.
It is reported that this is the fourth consecutive quarter for pay awards remaining at the 2% level, which is in marked contrast to the situation last year. During 2016, pay awards were often recorded below this level and fluctuated regularly.
Pay award analysis by XpertHR
XpertHR carries out analysis of pay awards throughout the calendar year. Its data shows that half of all pay awards in the first quarter of 2017 were between 1.5% and 2.3%, which is the highest level seen since 2016.
Data trends indicate that salaries are on the rise for some employees. Around one-third (32.2%) of employees received a higher pay award than they received in 2016, while more than one in four employees benefited from a pay award of 2%; however, this is not true for all sectors. There were still 36.8% of employees who received a lower pay award than they received in 2016.
Pay awards differ by employment sector
Who is benefiting from the pay award rises and who is missing out? The manufacturing and production sector fared slightly better overall, with median pay rises of two per cent compared with median awards of 1.8% for employees in the services sector.
Pay awards in the private sector are looking healthy overall. This conclusion can only be based on provisional analysis of data from April 2017, but the signs are positive so far.
Analysis of the 85 basic pay awards recorded in the private employment sector shows that 40% are higher than the pay awards released in the same period in 2016. At between two per cent and 2.5%, it is also true to say that the range of awards for the middle half of this – albeit limited – sample are higher than last year.
Given the squeeze on public finances, the figures for the public sector are perhaps unsurprisingly not quite so positive. Analysis carried out by XpertHR revealed that public sector pay awards are still around one per cent, which is very similar to the figures for 2016.
The pledge to award NHS workers a pay rise has been incorporated into the Labour Party manifesto for the forthcoming general election.
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