Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Latest NewsInflationPay & benefitsTrade unionsPay settlements

Third of workers back Bank of England chief over pay restraint

by Adam McCulloch 4 Mar 2022
by Adam McCulloch 4 Mar 2022 Photo: Shutterstock
Photo: Shutterstock

A third of workers in the UK have said that Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey’s call for pay restraint in February would make a difference to their pay rise demands.

Bailey was criticised by unions and the Prime Minister after suggesting workers should not be asking for big pay rises, despite facing the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation. He called for moderation in a bid to control inflation, which officials expect to hit 7.25% in April.

Backtracking from his original statement somewhat, Bailey said last week: “I’m not saying people should not take pay rises. I did make the point it was in the context of large pay rises. And my concern is the second-round effects. If everybody tries to get ahead of the shock we’ve had from outside, then we’ll get the second-round effects and it will get worse. That’s the problem.”

But a poll by recruiter Randstad UK suggested that more people than expected would accept exercising more restraint when it came to wages. When asked if the governor’s calls for restraint in the pay bargaining process would make a difference to them, 35% said they would, while most (55%) said they would not.

Pay and inflation

Pay trends January 2022: First deals of the year explored 

XpertHR indicators: Inflation 

How to use inflation statistics in pay setting 

Victoria Short, chief executive of Randstad UK, said that despite being in the minority, the high proportion who would accept restraint on wages was “stunning”. She added: “It’s bizarre that people might willingly throw away their material aspirations because the governor of the Bank of England has asked them to. Perhaps the age of deference is not dead?

“I don’t think we’ve seen anything like this since 1977 – it harks back to the 1970s when unions pledged to do their bit to keep wages below inflation as part of a social contract.”

This suggested the Prime Minister was wrong to have rebuked Andrew Bailey, Short said, adding that perhaps people felt the ability to work at home more often was a pay rise in itself and would prefer to negotiate about other priorities away from pay.

She said: “Perhaps society is experiencing an altruistic surge in the wake of the pandemic? Or people may not be looking for a pay rise despite inflation because flexibility and hybrid working might have been a kind of pay rise. If you need to commute less frequently, your involuntary expenditure falls – and you see a big increase in your after-tax, discretionary spending.

Perhaps the age of deference is not dead?” – Victoria Short, Randstad UK

“You may even be able to move slightly further away from the office. So people may have made the decision that they’d rather reserve their negotiating power for locking into more flexibility in the face of demands to return to the office. Whatever the reason, while the market dictates pay and wages are no longer set by national policy, it turns out that plenty of professionals were listening to the governor.”

Average wage pay, excluding bonuses grew by 3.8% in the three months to November 2021, in part because of tight awards in 2020.

There are indications that wage pressure could continue. Very few people who want a job do not have one, which gives those in work greater power in wage negotiations. As food and energy prices rise, employers are bracing themselves for pay demands to grow louder.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Randstad said it expected median pay settlements to rise above 3% this year, compared with an average of 2% over the 2010s.

Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today


Browse more human resources jobs

Adam McCulloch

Adam McCulloch first worked for Personnel Today magazine in the early 1990s as a sub editor. He rejoined Personnel Today as a writer in 2017, covering all aspects of HR but with a special interest in diversity, social mobility and industrial relations. He has ventured beyond the HR realm to work as a freelance writer and production editor in sectors including travel (The Guardian), aviation (Flight International), agriculture (Farmers' Weekly), music (Jazzwise), theatre (The Stage) and social work (Community Care). He is also the author of KentWalksNearLondon. Adam first became interested in industrial relations after witnessing an exchange between Arthur Scargill and National Coal Board chairman Ian McGregor in 1984, while working as a temp in facilities at the NCB, carrying extra chairs into a conference room!

previous post
Highest level of new job postings since early December
next post
Flawed English tests: migrants still having to fight legal cases

You may also like

NHS pay disputes: Who could strike again?

20 Jun 2025

Nurses vote on whether 3.6% pay rise is...

9 Jun 2025

Streeting appeals to resident doctors to vote against...

29 May 2025

Unions ponder strike action after public sector pay...

23 May 2025

Public sector workers gain pay rises of up...

22 May 2025

Pay awards in real terms could fall for...

21 May 2025

Ryanair demands flight attendants pay back salary increase

21 May 2025

NHS Scotland staff accept two-year 8.2% pay deal

16 May 2025

Nurses threaten strikes if pay demands not met

12 May 2025

Private sector median pay increases remain at 3.5%

6 May 2025

  • Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer holidays SPONSORED | Businesses play a...Read more
  • AI is here. Your workforce should be ready. SPONSORED | From content creation...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+