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Pay awards have increased to 2.7 per cent for the three months to the end of July 2002 - a rise of 0.2 per cent on the revised June figure, according to Industrial Relations Services (IRS).
Despite the increase, acting editor of IRS Pay and Benefits Bulletin, Charles Cotton, said stock market volatility is likely to dampen-down pay expectations as uncertainty clouds much of the private sector.
The research shows that settlement levels in the service sector, at 3 per cent, continue to run ahead of those in manufacturing (2.8 per cent), although the gap has narrowed. It also reveals that pay deals are generally worth less than a year ago. An analysis of a matched sample of 49 awards monitored by IRS reveals that two-thirds of settlements with effective dates between 1 May and 31 July 2002 are worth less than the comparable deal in the same period last year. Only 16 per cent of reviews are worth more, with a similar percentage pitched at exactly the same level.
