Four-fifths of engineering pay awards worth 5% or more

High-end awards worth 5% or more accounted for over four-fifths (81%) of all engineering pay increases in 2023, according to the latest research from IDR. This is a much larger proportion than in 2022 when around half (48%) of increases were at this level.

The median pay award across the engineering sector has risen from 4.5% in 2022 to 5.7% in 2023. The most significant increases for engineering workers were in the energy and water sub-sector. Many workers across this sub-sector have seen larger pay increases compared to the previous year’s figures, with the median here now sitting at 7.5% compared to just 3.5% in 2022. Comparatively high awards have also been made among employers in vehicles and components, where the upper quartile of awards is 9.6%, with a median increase of 6.4%.

Employees covered by collective agreements were more likely to receive higher increases than those working for organisations with no trade union bargaining. Pay awards for employees represented by unions were 0.9 percentage points higher at the median than those without union representation (6.2% and 5.3% respectively). This year’s survey found that two-fifths of pay increases were collectively bargained.

Survey respondents were asked about the most prominent factors behind their pay decisions for 2023, and nine out of ten highlighted affordability as a ‘major’ or ‘substantial’ influence on their pay decision. Inflation and labour market pressures also featured highly – as agreed by 83% and 79% of respondents respectively.

Recruitment and retention

Almost three-fifths of employers cited recruitment issues, and over two-fifths of respondents also advised that they are struggling to retain staff. These proportions have fallen since our last study in 2022 however many employers reported that professional engineers remain one of the most difficult occupational areas for recruitment and retention. Competition from other firms was cited as the most common reason for difficulties with recruitment, as agreed by 82% of survey respondents.

About the research

The survey was conducted between August and September 2023 and gained 40 responses from mostly medium and large-sized private sector firms employing 296,235 employees in total. 

Find out more

A full report of findings from the survey provides details of salary levels for various jobs across manual and white-collar engineering functions, from operator roles to team leaders and senior managers. It also covers pay increases, recruitment and retention issues, working hours, holiday entitlement, shift patterns and allowances, bonuses and pension provision.