Pay rises in the private sector remained at 4% in the three months ending in January 2025, according to new figures.
The latest data from Incomes Data Research (IDR) showed that during the quarter, the proportion of wage increases worth 5% or more in the sector rose to 17% from 14% in December 2024, lifting the upper quartile of awards from 4% to 4.5%.
These changes have largely been driven by trends in the manufacturing industry, where the upper quartile has risen to 4.5% from 4.3% during a key month for agreements in the sector.
IDR’s analysis, based on 68 awards covering almost 300,000 employees from 1 November 2024 to 31 January 2025, showed that across the whole economy, the median pay award stood at 3.5%, 0.5% below that in the private sector.
This figure highlights a drop in the median, which remained at 4% throughout the latter half of 2024, and marks the first time it has fallen below 4.0% since it stood at 3.8% in March 2022.
The recent reduction from 4% in December to 3.5% in January is largely down to a reduced percentage of pay increases in the 4% to 4.99% range. Only 31% of wage rises fell within this range, down from around 39% in December. Concurrently, the proportion of pay awards in the 3% to 3.99% bracket increased to just over 41%, up from 33%.
