Wage growth levels out in manufacturing sector
PAY growth in Britain’s factories remained steady at 2.5 per cent in the three months to June, industry group EEF announced today.
“Whilst there is undoubted pressure to give higher settlements, there is an equal dose of realism amongst companies and their employees in response to economic uncertainty and competitive pressures,” commented EEF’s chief economist Lee Hopley.
The proportion of pay settlements resulting in a pay freeze dropped from 13.7 per cent in the quarter to May, to 11.9 per cent in the quarter to June.
However, a higher proportion (17.4 per cent) of settlements were for less than two per cent more pay, compared to 16.3 per cent in the previous month’s results.
The amount of pay rises for three per cent or more “continued to drift upwards to almost one in five settlements,” EEF reported.