The latest data from IDSPay.co.uk shows that the median pay award in the private sector remained at three per cent in the three months to the end of May 2012, according to 46 per cent of all pay awards at or above this level.
Though this is a slight drop on last month's figures, when 48 per cent of deals were at three per cent or above, at the same time inflation has fallen to 3.1 per cent on the all items RPI measure, which is the index most commonly used for pay setting.
When public sector settlements are excluded from the analysis, smaller firms have tended to award greater increases than bigger ones, with the median settlement for organisations with over 5,000 employees being 2.5 per cent, rising to three per cent for those with fewer than 5,000 staff.
Commenting on the report, Ken Mulkearn, editor of IDS Pay Report, said the recent sharp fall in RPI inflation from 3.5 to 3.1 per cent reduces the gap between median pay awards in the private sector and the generally-accepted measure of the cost of living to 0.1 per cent.
"If private sector pay settlements remain at current levels, and inflation falls further, then the squeeze on workers’ incomes, which began in 2008, will have been loosened significantly," he added.
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Posted by Richard Esquilant
Source: The Sales Executive News