-XpertHR: Median UK May-Jul employee-weighted pay deal rises to 2.0%
-XpertHR: May-July unweighted pay deal rises to 2.5% versus 2.4%
LONDON (MNI) – The impact of the 2% pay deal at retail giant Tesco,
the UK’s largest private sector employer, has driven up the median pay
deal in the three months through July.
The median employee weighted pay deal in the XpertHR series climbed
in the May through July period to 2.0% from 1.7% in June and was up from
the 1.8% levels seen in the early stages of this year. Unweighted median
pay deals rose to 2.5% from the originally recorded 2.4% in Q2.
Sheila Attwood, XpertHR Pay and Benefits editor, said the key
reason behind the rise in the employee weighted measure was clear. The
survey included Tesco’s 2.0% pay deal, which covers some quarter of a
million staff and accounted for around half of the sample.
Another factor behind the rise in median pay deals was that the
public sector pay freezes, prevalent in April at the start of the fiscal
year, dropped out of the latest sample with private sector deals now
dominating.
The headline 2.5% median outturn for unweighted pay deals in the
three months through July was, unsurprisingly, identical to the median
private sector pay deal in this period.
The survey does not suggest any underlying acceleration in the
subdued rate of UK wage growth. Attwood said she expected median private
sector deals to now hold steady at 2.5%.
One-in-six of the private sector pay deals in the survey was a pay
freeze, although some 17% were for 3% and 12% were worth more than 4%.
In more normal times, 2.5% wage growth would have been too low to
be compatible with the UK’s 2.0% inflation target, as long run
productivity growth was also 2.0%. The latest data, however, show
productivity growth has turned negative raising questions over just what
level of pay growth is now compatible with the target.
-London newsroom: 0044-7862-7491 email: drobinson@marketnews.com
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