PAY DATA
Inflation continues to outstrip pay deals
Pay settlements across the UK economy continued to languish below the prevailing rate of inflation, according to a new analysis of wage bargaining over the past year from pay specialists XpertHR.
XpertHR's key indicator of settlement trends - the median basic pay increase across the economy - in the year ending August 2011 was 2.2%. The findings are based on details of 1,482 pay awards recorded by XpertHR researchers, covering 7.9 million employees - equivalent to 27% of the UK workforce.
Other key findings on pay awards over the past year include:
The most common influence on settlements was company performance/ability to pay. This was followed by inflation, although few organisations now include an explicit link to inflation.
16% of settlements resulted in a pay freeze. But 93% of employees affected by a freeze work in the public sector, and just 7% in the private sector.
Six pay awards in ten (60%) are higher than the same group of employees received in the previous year.
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Mitigating low pay awards
Separate research of pay awards in 286 private sector companies, conducted by XpertHR, reveals that few organisations have tried to mitigate low pay awards:
Just 16% reported that they had made efforts to compensate employees for "low or zero" pay awards.
Among those that had done so, the most popular action was the payment of a non-consolidated lump sum.
This was closely followed by bonuses, additional annual leave, training opportunities and additional or extended benefits.
Want to know more?
Title: “Annual review of pay trends 2011”, XpertHR upfront, 23 September 2011.
Survey details: The research is based on the details of 1,482 pay awards settled in the year to the end of August 2011.
Availability: To subscribe visit http://forms.xperthr.co.uk/content/xhr-subscribe-today.
XpertHR offers detailed statistics and analysis of recent pay settlements across the UK. XpertHR collects details of pay settlements for around 1,400 employee groups each year. Its database contains more than 28,000 settlements. For more information visit www.xperthr.co.uk.