As 2023 dawns it appears likely that pay awards will continue to lag behind inflation over the next 12 months, with the resulting cut in real wages set to hit employees hard.
As we reach the end of the calendar year, XpertHR's provisional headline measure of basic pay awards has risen sharply to 5% over the three months to the end of November 2022, up from 4% in the previous rolling quarter.
Our survey looks at the use of performance-related pay schemes, the factors taken into account when deciding the pay rises and the effectiveness of such schemes.
The XpertHR headline pay award is worth 4% in the three months to the end of September 2022, marking the sixth consecutive rolling quarter at this level.
In the face of a tight labour market and record high inflation, pay settlements have risen to their highest levels for 30 years. But with inflation easing and the economy faltering, we look at likely pay rises over the coming 12 months.
The median pay increase across the manufacturing-and-production sector has almost doubled over the past 12 months, but employers are concerned about how long they can maintain these higher pay awards.
Pay awards in the not-for-profit sector increased in value in the 12 months to the end of August 2022, compared with the previous year. However, they continue to trail behind the whole-economy median and fall significantly below current rates of inflation.