HR Hub

Various research bodies have published pay data for the three months to the end of January 2025, as well as forecasts for the year ahead.

• Incomes Data Research focuses on the private sector where the median pay award was 4.0% in the three months to January (interquartile range: 3.0% - 4.5%)
• Brightmine recorded a median basic pay award of 3.0% across the whole economy for the three months to the end of January - the lowest median pay settlement recorded since December 2021 - (interquartile range: 2.5% to 4.0%).
• Deals reported to LRD’s Payline averaged 3.0% across all agreements for the three months to January. Deals in the private sector stood at 3.0%.
• Amongst employers looking to increase, decrease or freeze pay in the next 12 months, the median expected basic pay increase for the next 12 months remains at 3% overall, for the third consecutive quarter, according to the CIPD’s Winter 2024-25 Labour Market Outlook. In the public sector for the year ahead, this falls to 2.5%.
• A third of UK employers plan to reduce pay rises in 2025 because of increased employment costs announced in the 2024 budget, according to the National Insurance Pulse Survey by Towers Watson. Of the respondents that have reduced salary increases this year, the salary budget pot fell around 1%, taking planned salary increases for those employers to 3%.