According to EEF’s latest pay data for the three months to end of October, nearly 12% of companies reported that they had deferred their pay settlement, the highest level since November 2001, and nearly 13% of them had frozen pay, the highest level since December 2003.
This has resulted in the average level of pay settlement falling sharply to 2.8% for the three months to the end of October, down from the revised figure of 3.1% for the 3 months to the end of September. After a prolonged period when settlements have remained just above 3%, this was the lowest figure reported since June 2006.
Commenting on these latest figures, David Yeandle, EEF Head of Employment Policy, said:-
"The severity of these changes over such a short period of time indicates the extent to which companies are having to take immediate action to control their costs. It seems hard to believe it is only a few months since fears about wage inflation were so prevalent."
|
Settlement level - per cent |
Number of settlements |
|
Zero (pay freeze) |
12 |
|
0.01-2.00 |
9 (3 at 2 per cent exactly) |
|
2.01-3.00 |
29 (26 at 3 per cent exactly) |
|
3.01-4.00 |
36 (13 at 4 per cent exactly) |
|
4.01 or more |
8 |
|
|
|
|
The November 2008 Pay Bulletin contains information on 94 settlements covering 12,835 employees. Of these, the average settlement was 3.0% in August 2008, 2.6% in September 2008 and 2.8% in October 2008 although the figures for both August and September are based on very small samples. These figures may be subject to revision to take into account settlements for this period that have not yet been received.
ENDS