One-quarter of employers planning pay rises of at least 5% in 2024 | press mention

Nearly a quarter (24%) of employers predict that the main pay rise for staff in 2024 is likely to be at least 5%, according to an IDR poll of 158 mostly large private sector organisations. The research also revealed that nearly half of employers – some 46% – said they intend to award increases of between 4% and 4.99%. While increases worth at least 4% are set to continue, the poll also found that two-thirds of employers anticipate that their 2024 pay award will be a lower increase when compared to this year.

A further 27% said that the level of pay rise in 2024 is likely to be the same as the level of increase awarded in 2023 and just 7% of employers in the sample expect that pay awards in 2024 will be higher when compared to this year’s outcomes. These findings hint at an easing of pay pressures and that pay awards will most likely trend downwards from the median pay award of 5.6% that we have observed in 2023.

“Although the coming trend in pay awards is likely to be down on the past year, on the whole they are likely to remain higher than they were prior to 2023”, commented Zoe Woolacott from IDR.

Median for January at 4.4%

IDR’s regular monitoring of pay outcomes bears out the findings from the poll. Our monitoring of pay awards shows that the median pay increase across the economy in 2023 was 5.6% but an early look at outcomes already decided for 2024 shows that the median pay award across the economy has fallen and currently stands at 4.4%. These latest figures are based on a sample of 42 awards effective between 1 January and 31 October 2024, mostly at large organisations and together covering over 140,000 employees...