Pay settlements in April remain at 6%

The median basic pay settlement in the three months to the end of April 2023, the busiest time of year for pay reviews, remained at 6% for the third consecutive rolling quarter.

XpertHR data showed that the average pay award remained significantly below inflation, which in March rose by 10.1% on the consumer prices index (CPI). However, the 6% figure was two percentage points higher than the 4% recorded during the same period last year.

Sheila Attwood, XpertHR senior content manager, data and HR insights, said: “This latest dataset is significant because it includes the first wage reviews from April, which is the most important month in the annual pay settlement calendar. However, pay awards have remained the same, holding at 6% as we enter the second quarter of 2023.

“While inflation is forecast to fall through the second half of this year, our research suggests pay awards may well hold at their current levels. During a recent webinar, we asked employers how they expected 2024 pay awards to compare to current levels – nearly half (44%) believe they will remain the same, compared to 41% who think it will be lower. Just 14% believe it will be higher.”

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Based on the outcome of 197 pay awards with effective dates between 1 February and 30 April 2023, covering nearly half a million employees, XpertHR found that:

• The most common pay award was 5%, and represented nearly a quarter of pay deals
• Nearly three-quarters (72.3%) of pay settlements were higher than the same group of employees received last year, representing a slightly smaller proportion than the previous month. A similar proportion of the latest deals were either worth less (14.9%) or the same (12.8%) as last year
• Only 3% of sampled deals resulted in a pay freeze
• The lower quartile remained at 5% for the second rolling quarter in a row, while the upper quartile has risen by 0.1 percentage points to 8.1%.

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