Oil and gas pay doubles that of banking sector
Employees at the UK’s largest oil and gas companies are paid twice as much as bankers, claims new research today.
A shortage of skilled workers in the oil and gas sector, coupled with soaring demand, has pushed up salaries. Banc De Binary, the binary options trading firm that undertook the research, says that many of the industry’s top engineers are internationally mobile, meaning they are at risk of being poached by global companies.
“Banking has the glamorous image of being the best paid industry, but in reality UK-listed banks are doing less and less investment banking and are placing more emphasis on lower retail bankers.
“Meanwhile, the white hot demand for oil and gas engineers has forced wages in this sector up to stratospheric levels,” said Oren Laurent, founder of Banc De Binary. “High oil prices have meant that oil and gas companies have not been under a great deal of pressure to control wages. However, it is an area they need to keep an eye on. For shareholders, it is not as critical as capital expenditure but it could become an issue if oil prices do weaken.”
FTSE 100-quoted oil and gas companies pay an average of £106,660 in salary, pensions and bonuses per employee, whereas the top banks pay £54,608. In the oil and gas sector, BG Group pays the most to its staff, averaging at £119,390, followed by Tullow Oil, where the average is £106,740.
The research found that scandal-tainted outsourcing firm G4S was the lowest payer in the FTSE 100, with average staff costs of just £8,650.
The highest payer is £234,640 per employee at private equity firm 3i Group.