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One
in three of the businesses included in a recent survey froze their
wages in April.
According
to Incomes Data Services (IDS), of the pay settlements that it
monitored last month, some 30 per cent involved pay freezes.
IDS
said that more and more firms were pegging wages at current levels.
Over the first quarter of the year, pay freezes accounted for 20 per
cent of wage deals. Now that figure has risen to a third.
Where
wage increases were agreed in April, the rate of pay rise was an
average of 2 per cent, down from the 3 per cent recorded in the
months from January to March.
The
contrast with 2008 is even more stark. IDS said that of the 243 pay
settlements it has analysed this year, some 64 resulted in wage
freezes. The total number of wage freezes for the whole of 2008 was
seven.
However,
the IDS report pointed out that pay settlements are not following a
universal pattern, with some sectors faring better than others
during the recession. Some 40 per cent of wage rises involved
increases of between 3 per cent and 4 per cent.
Ken
Mulkearn, the editor of the IDS report, said: “Firms most affected
by the recession are freezing or pausing pay, with most of the
freezes concentrated in engineering and among firms which provide
key industrial inputs, such as chemicals manufacturers.
“This
difference in levels of pay settlements illustrates that there are
clear sectoral differences when evaluating the effects of the
recession.” |
