According to EEF’s latest pay data for the three months to the end of November 2008, the level of pay settlements has fallen slightly to 2.8% from the revised figure of 2.9% for the previous 3 month period and is the lowest figure recorded since June 2006.
In addition, a quarter of companies are continuing to report that they had either deferred their pay settlement or frozen pay. Over the last 3 months, the number of companies reporting that they had deferred their pay settlement was nearly 10%, the highest level since August 2002, and more than 15% of them had frozen pay, the highest level since December 2003.
Settlement level - per cent
Number of settlements
Zero (pay freeze)
17
0.01-2.00
9 ( 4 at 2 per cent exactly)
2.01-3.00
31 ( 24 at 3 per cent exactly)
3.01-4.00
46 ( 17 at 4 per cent exactly)
4.01 or more
9
The December 2008 Pay Bulletin contains information on 112 settlements covering 14,615 employees. Of these, the average settlement was 2.7% in both September and October 2008 and 3.0% in November 2008 although the figures for both September and November 2008 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