Dip in Payline settlements

An analysis of settlements from the Labour Research Department’s Payline database of collective agreements shows that in the three months to March the median (midpoint) for all settlements was 2.7%, down on the 2.8% figure for February.

The Payline figures for increases in basic pay vary by sector; private sector settlements had a median increase of 2.8%, but the public sector median was only 1.0%, reflecting the public sector pay freeze; both of these figures were unchanged on February.

In manufacturing, the median was steady at 2.6%, and the service sector median was steady at 3.0%.

The 3.3% rise in the Retail Prices Index for March was higher than February’s inflation figure of 3.2%. The government’s preferred inflation measure, the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), was steady at 2.8% in the year to March.

The latest official figures for average weekly earnings, covering the year to February, were gloomy with no growth in the total pay figure for whole economy or the service sector. It was even worse in the private sector with negative growth of 0.5% in the year to February.

In manufacturing, average earnings growth was steady at 1.5% and in the public sector (including the nationalised banks) annual growth was down to 1.1%.

The regular pay data, which exclude bonuses, showed a 0.6% rise for the whole economy. The other sectoral increases were: 0.6% for the private sector, 1.1% for the public sector, 2.7% for manufacturing and 0.4% for services.