Airbnb, for example, can easily be used at the weekend, and the income is tax freeCV Library, a CV searching service, has compared this year’s pay data with last year’s and concluded that employers are offering higher salaries to attract job seekers.
Luckily for those with large mortgages hoping to avoid interest rate rises, the Bank of England takes the opposite view; however, CV Library is looking at the data by area, so it is possible that the regions it is looking at are bucking the national trend.
Bristol and Wales lead the way
Bristol heads the list of lucrative places to work, with salaries rising by 7.6%. Since no explanation is given, we are forced to speculate. Could it be that it has historically suffered from lower pay and this is a catching up exercise?
Support for the idea that Bristol is indeed a jobs hotspot comes from Tech Nation. Its latest (2017) annual report says that the average digital tech worker in the area now earns £47,063, a rise over the past five years of 10%. Bristol and Bath is now the largest digital and tech cluster outside London.
Next on the CV Library list is Wales, with a salary rise of 6.1%. Cardiff and Swansea are heavily backing digital investment, so the same effect that we see in the West Country may be working in Wales.
The Development Bank of Wales, with £1bn burning a hole in its pocket, will certainly be providing lots of business capital in the next year or two.
London does not make the top ten, which is a bit hard to fathom. The list of winners is matched by a lengthy list of losers, where average salaries fell; in fact, the BBC recently carried a report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showing that while average weekly earnings increased by 2.3% in the year to January 2017, so did inflation. There will be no pay rise for Mr and Ms Average.
Moonlighting bound to increase
When employees’ wages are static, or just keep pace with inflation, workers are much more likely to go looking for extra sources of income. The gig economy, or on-demand economy, is probably providing very large numbers of the permanently employed with an extra weekend or evening earning opportunity.
Airbnb, for example, can easily be used at the weekend, and the income is tax free. Uber, Deliveroo and others also offer part-time work that can be combined with a conventional job. HR departments should dust down their ‘outside work’ policy and make sure it is up to date.
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