Fact Service August 2012

Issue 32

Pay settlements stable at 3% in June

The latest data hold out some hope for an improvement in living standards. Pay settlements from Labour Research Department’s Payline database remained stable at 3.0% in the three months to June, while inflation under the Retail Prices Index (RPI) fell to 2.8%, putting settlements ahead of inflation.

The median (midpoint) increase in settlements has been unchanged since January, while RPI inflation has gradually fallen from 3.9% to 2.8%.

The government’s preferred measure of inflation, the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), was down to 2.4% for the year to June from 2.8% the previous month.

The figures from Payline show some variation by sector with private sector settlements averaging 3.0% rises as did manufacturing. But in the public sector the median settlement was just 1.8% and in services it was 2.9%.

Subscribers to Payline can access the latest settlements by following the link below.

www.lrd.org.uk/index.php?pagid=18