Our latest review of pay trends reveals that the headline increase in pay awards remains steady at 3.5% in the three months to the end of February 2008. This masks an underlying pattern of pay rises that are lower than a year ago. With headline inflation forecast to fall during the year, this trend is only likely to accelerate.

In the economy as a whole, forecasts are also down. Alistair Darling's 12 March Budget had little to report, but did present downgraded forecasts for economic growth.

Other top stories in this issue:

• National minimum wage to rise to £5.73 per hour
• Lack of support traps migrants at bottom of labour market
• Strong City bonus round defies credit crunch
• Property more popular than pensions

Our pay reports in this issue give details of the latest pay awards at Akzo Nobel Decorative Coatings and in the refractory industry and the sawmilling industry.

We’re currently engaged in gathering benchmarking data on pay equality in local authorities. If you work for a local authority, please invest some time in taking part in our survey.

Sheila Attwood,
Editor,
Pay and Benefits Bulletin

Pay reports recently added to the site:

Akzo Nobel Decorative Coatings: rates rise by 4.2%

Refractory industry: second-stage increase comes into force

Sawmilling industry: minimum rates rise by up to 3.2%

Pay review update: 20 March 2008

The latest pay review update table contains pay settlements at Bentley Motors, Signet Group, Superdrug 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. Members of our panel of City and academic forecasters expect headline inflation to fall gradually to 2.6% 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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From the blog

Launched and run by the editorial team that produces XpertHR and the IRS e-journals, the Employment Intelligence blog is regularly updated with news, comment and links to the latest employment developments. Recent posts include:

• Budget 2008: the main points
  
• Budget 2008: unlocking the secret of better productivity
  
• TUC calls for value of redundancy pay to be restored

European employment intelligence

Are you interested in developments in pay and benefits in Europe? Remember that you can access reports on European developments from our sister journal, European Employment Review. Recent additions to the site include:

• France: Mixed response to government's pay proposals
• Germany: Minimum wage expected in temporary work sector by summer 2008
• Spain: Average 3.3% pay increase so far agreed for 2008

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