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Latest NewsPublic sectorPay settlements

Pay awards hit 10-year high

by Ashleigh Webber 22 Aug 2019
by Ashleigh Webber 22 Aug 2019 Shutterstock
Shutterstock

Pay awards reached their highest level in a decade at 2.6%, but it may be too soon to say whether the increase will continue.

The average settlement in the three months to the end of July 2019 edged above 2.5% for the first time since December 2008, according to analysis of a sample of 46 pay awards by XpertHR. This marks an increase on the 2.5% median seen throughout 2019 so far.

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However, employers remained cautious when revising pay. Only a quarter (23.8%) of awards were higher than what the same group of staff received at their previous pay review, while 42.9% were lower.

XpertHR said that just a couple of pay awards at higher or lower rates would have shifted the median.

Both the upper quartile (3%) and the lower quartile (2%) awards were unchanged compared with the previous three months and the most common basic pay award was 2%.

XpertHR pay and benefits editor Sheila Attwood said: “The XpertHR headline pay award has moved above 2.5% for the first time since the economic crisis a decade ago. However, it may be too soon to say this is the start of a sustained increase in pay awards, with four in 10 employers awarding a lower increase than the same group of employees received in their previous pay review.”

The average pay settlement in the public sector (2.4%) edged closer to the private sector median (2.5%).

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Many public sector employees had their pay awards announced by pay review bodies in July – including consolidated awards of 2.9% for armed forces personnel (although senior officers received an increase of 2%) backdated to 1 April, and 2.5% for police officers in England and Wales, which takes effect from 1 September 2019.

Pay awards in the manufacturing sector were 3% on average, compared with 2.5% among private sector services organisations.

Ashleigh Webber

Ashleigh is a former editor of OHW+ and former HR and wellbeing editor at Personnel Today. Ashleigh's areas of interest include employee health and wellbeing, equality and inclusion and skills development. She has hosted many webinars for Personnel Today, on topics including employee retention, financial wellbeing and menopause support.

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