HR Hub

Pay data: for 3-4 months to February 2018

Pay rises are accelerating in the early months of 2018.

  • XpertHR shows that the median basic pay award in the three months to February 2018 was 2.5% with the interquartile range at 2%-3%. While only a quarter of pay awards were the same as the award received by the same group of employees last year, the majority (57%) were higher. Within the private sector, the 2.5% figure is also recorded for pay awards in private-sector services firms, while manufacturers reported a median 2.6% increase. What’s more, employers are predicting that pay awards in 2018 will be at their highest level for nearly four years: employers in the manufacturing and production and services arms of the private sector expect that 2.5% will be their benchmark pay award in 2018.
  • The Engineering Employers Federation’s (EEF) data shows a sustained growth in manufacturing wages over the last few months – the February 2018 three-month average was 2.4%. Just over four-fifths (84%) of deals were agreed between 1.75% to 3%, but of these, two-thirds were evenly split between pay deals at exactly 2% and exactly 3%. EEF data also show a very low number of pay freezes (4%) and deferrals (3%): ‘after a year characterised by companies not keen to offer an immediate pay rise, it appears that the first months of the year have unblocked this situation’.
  • The Labour Research Department’s Payline shows the median standard increase at 3% for the three months to February.
  • Croner Reward data slightly bucks the above trends. Including pay freezes, the average settlement in the four months to February 2018 was 2.2%. The average forecast for the coming year is 2.3%. The average forecast for the next quarter (March to June) is 2.3%.