January is one of the most important months in the pay-setting calendar, and the deals are coming in thick and fast now. Our analysis reveals that January 2008 pay deals are slightly lower than those at the end of last year.

This will be welcome reading for the Bank of England, which is cautious about the prospect of rising wage inflation. Negotiators, on the other hand, will be focusing on the strong 4.1% headline inflation figure for January 2008. If you're about to, or you are in the middle of, negotiating your annual pay award, read our analysis of the latest pay awards.

The first public sector pay deals for 2008 have also been agreed, with recommendations from the Armed Forces and Prison Service Pay Review Bodies being accepted by the government. Read brief details, ahead of our more indepth analysis in the spring.

Also in this issue:

• CIPD's survey of reward priorities and practices
• The value of unpaid overtime
• The extent of the gender pay gap

Also, don't forget if you've just completed a pay review, you can now submit pay settlement data online to the IRS pay databank. Follow this
link, or email Michael Carty to add your organisation's data to the largest whole-economy pay monitoring service in the UK.

Sheila Attwood,
Editor,
Pay and Benefits Bulletin

Pay reports recently added to the site:

Kodak: pay rates rise by 2%

Lafarge Cement: 4.3% on basic rates and allowances

Royal Mail managers: 27-month deal

Pay review update: 22 February 2008

The latest pay review update table contains pay settlements at Channel 4, Next, Royal Mail and many more.

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Statistics and forecasts

The datafile contains the most recent inflation, earnings and labour market statistics, pay settlement data and inflation and earnings forecasts. Our panel of City and academic forecasters expects headline inflation to fall gradually to 2.5% by the end of the year. Average earnings growth is expected to remain in the region of 4% over the next year.

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Today's tip: find reward practice case studies

Are you conducting a major review of pay, benefits or grading at your organisation, and would like to see how other organisations have tackled similar issues? You can view our latest case studies from the Pay and Benefits homepage to read in detail about other organisations' methods, processes and lessons learned.

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