Employers were reluctant to lift pay freezes in the three months to April 2010, despite the economy returning to growth, new findings show.
The Income Data Services (IDS) Pay Report found that a fifth of all employers were still pushing through pay freezes, although the number of freezes is now at its lowest point since the start of last year.
Public sector pay deals averaged just 1% in the three months to April – half the 2% level in the economy as a whole, reports the Financial Times.
IDS found that 35% of public sector awards with effective dates in April resulted in pay freezes.
In the private sector, typical pay awards rose from 1.3% in the first quarter of the year to 2% in the three months from February to April, according to the Daily Telegraph.
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The data, based on 97 organisations covering 2.1 million employees, also revealed that the typical pay award across the public and private sectors had grown to 2% over February to April, up from 1.9% in the three months to March.
The IRS review of pay settlements for the three months to the end of April – published exclusively on XpertHR – found that the median pay award remains at 1%, with pay freezes accounting for just over one-third of the deals analysed.
