The typical pay rise for UK workers has been 2% for two years running, with almost half unsatisfied with their employer’s decision, according to a new report.
CIPD, the professional body for HR workers, warns employers that they must invest more in training and communicate better with workers about pay if they want to see gains in productivity. Its survey with YouGov of 2,255 workers found more than half, or 53%, received a pay rise in 2014, compared with 51% in 2013 while almost two-thirds are optimistic about getting another rise this year.
The typical 2% rise means a fall in real terms in 2013, when inflation was 2.6%. In 2014 inflation was 1.5%.
The poll found 48% were not satisfied with their employer’s pay decision and more than three-quarters of staff had not been told what they must achieve to get a pay rise in 2015. Just a quarter agreed that their employer was giving them the training needed to increase their earnings in the future.
The CIPD joins other labour market experts in warning that the UK has a long way to go in improving its weak record on productivity, a measure of output per worker, or hour worked.
“This month, many employers will be spending a lot of money on increasing their employees’ pay as part of their annual pay reviews. But to get a return on this investment our research suggests that employees are more likely to be satisfied with the outcome if the organisation takes the time to explain the reasons behind it,” said Charles Cotton, performance and reward adviser at the CIPD.
The survey found that only 51% of workers felt their organisation had explained to them the rationale behind its 2014 pay decisions.
An increasing number of employees felt that their pay rises did not reflect their performance at work, at 23% in 2014, compared with 19% in 2013.
The survey also found:
• Workers aged 25-34 were most likely (59%) to get a pay rise in 2014, followed by those aged 35-44 (56%). Those under 25 and over 55 were slightly less likely to get a salary increase in 2014 (51% and 49% respectively).
• Those employed in the north-east of England (63%), Scotland (61%), the West Midlands (57%) and London (56%) are more likely to have had a pay increase than those in Wales (39%), Northern Ireland (41%) and the East Midlands (50%).
• Workers in manufacturing (74%) were the most likely to have seen their pay increase in 2014 , followed by finance (66%), travel, tourism, recreational, cultural and sporting activities (65%), transport and communications (63%).
• In the public sector, a third (34%) of workers are not expecting a salary increase at all in 2015.
