Based on a sample of 59 pay awards effective in January 2018, XpertHR finds that organisations in both manufacturing and production, and private-sector-services, are being more generous in their pay awards this year. Both sectors have recorded a median 2.5% award, with the middle half of increases worth between 2% and 2.8%.
XpertHR has not recorded pay awards across the economy as high as 2.5% since early 2014, so although only a snapshot of the very first deals to be concluded, the figures are a positive sign that employers are making higher pay awards than over the past year. Based on a matched sample, almost 60% of awards paid more to the affected employees than they received in January 2017 (and less than 20% were given a lower award).
Latest pay award findings
The latest rolling-quarterly analysis from XpertHR covers the three months to the end of December 2017. Based on a sample of 39 basic pay awards effective between 1 October and 31 December 2017, we find that:
- The median pay award across the whole economy was 2%, with the middle half of pay awards (the interquartile range) worth between 2% and 3%.
- Almost half (47.4%) of pay awards were at exactly the same level as employees received at their previous review. Just 13.1% were lower, but a healthy proportion (39.5%) were higher.
Over the 12 months to the end of December 2017, the median pay award in the private sector was 2%, compared with 1.1% in the public sector.
XpertHR pay and benefits editor Sheila Attwood said:
“It is almost four years since XpertHR’s headline measure of pay awards has stood at 2.5%, but we are now seeing some much-needed growth in pay award levels in the first deals to be concluded in 2018.”
