Sharp rise in pay deals

The latest figures from the Labour Research Department's PayLine database show a sharp upward movement with the three-monthly median to May up to 3.5% and the median to April revised upwards to 3.3%.

This reflects a substantial number of rail settlements in April in particular. The figure for the payround from August 2002 to May 2003 has moved up slightly to 3.1%.

The three-monthly medians vary a little from non-manuals on 3.1% to manuals on 3.5%, and manufacturing at 3.3% but services moved up to 3.7%. These variations are again attributable, at least in part, to the rail settlements. The gap between public and private sectors has narrowed to only 0.1% in the three months to May, although for the payround it remains at 0.5%.

The picture from other pay analysts is somewhat different with Industrial Relations Services reporting a median for the three months to May unchanged at 3.0%. Incomes Data Services have revised their median for the second quarter down to 3.0%.

The latest figures on average earnings show a sharp drop to 2.6% in the year to April, compared with 4.4% being the revised figure to March.

However, bonuses have a marked effect on these figures with the "bonus effect" being plus 1.0% in the year to March but minus 0.9% for the year to April. If bonuses are excluded from the calculation then the year to March increase was 3.7% and the year to April 3.4%.