Pay rises and inflation – how’s everyone doing?

I’ve usually felt OK over the years – I earn near the average wage, but don’t have kids. But this year’s ‘pay rise’ will be 3%, and it follows the last 2 years of 0% and 1.5%.

I make it that my pay will have dropped, in real terms, by about 9% since 2020. (Public sector, btw). I feel a lot less comfortable this year! The union is balloting us on strike action soon.

How’s everyone else looking? Are your employers even remotely keeping up with inflation?

Keeping up with inflation?! not a chance! Ive had below inflation pay rises for years, this years was unexpectedly generous at 4.5%…

I’ve just moved jobs in the last quarter to get a few extra percent and I expect I’ll be moving jobs again once I’ve got 12 months experience in this role just to try and keep as close to inflation as I can. I just hope the job market remains strong, but I expect there will be quite a lot of job movement in the near term as folk do similar.

Yeah I would be considering changing jobs but unfortunately my Long COVID makes the prospect of those initial weeks/months where you’re working hard to get up to speed just impossible. Maybe next year…

Got 2% in April, by the time the chancellor had hiked NI left me with £30 a month uplift. My energy costs have gone from £160 to £450 a month, expect that to increase again in the winter.

At the moment I don’t see how any employer can provide true wage increases to keep inline with inflation and absorb other cost rises.

I make it that my pay will have dropped, in real terms

This is the norm.

Comparing pre-pandemic to now I’m roughly 10% down on take-home pay thanks to changing jobs so not doing great. The current employer gave the staff a £1k increase which was 4% and there’s a lot of pressure for then to increase it by that at minimum this time round. My old employer recently gave everyone a 7% increase so if I don’t get something similar then I will most likely be leaving this job as it’ll leave very little each month for unexpected bills and savings. If inflation doesn’t calm down very soon I’ll be really struggling to make ends meet as I’m being hit by above inflation increases on almost every bill I have!

All of the recent price rises have coincided with our first year of paying for full time nursery so we’ve seen our disposable income wiped out. We’re not about to be homeless or anything but we’re not having any fun.

We actually managed to feel comfortable for a couple of years there when I finally escaped the bike trade and got a grown up job, even though I’ve started at the bottom. Now we’re back to counting our pennies until junior starts school.

Zero in 2020, 2% 2021, and I recon 3% will be lucky for 2022.

My colleague who works for me has just left as we pay her at top of scale, and 2% rise isn’t enough, so she’s jumped ship for a new role and better pay. That said, we get good holidays and a great pension, which means more to me than someone in their early 30’s, and they forget the employer contributions are about 15% more than most other employers and we get 50% more holidays than average.

3% in April and we’re (production staff) on not a whole lot more then NMW. They are currently making an ex-gratia payment of £75 pcm because we can’t work from home. I cycle to work so it’s free money but some of the guys are doing 35-40 miles a day.

2020 – 0%
2021 – 0%
2022 – ?
Not so great really. I’m network rail and not sure what the future holds really. Pay rise, bonus, further voluntary redundancies or compulsory redundancies?

I work in the private sector and earn almost exactly the median wage (less than the mean) I got an unusual 5% in April.
Most of what i buy is food and diesel so I suspect that my personal inflation rate is well above the 9% we hear on the news, that takes into account all sorts of stuff I never buy.
I had to miss a bike race in Czech Republic this year as I couldn’t afford it (having just blown my entire racing fund on one in Italy). Pre-covid it wouldn’t have been a problem. So yes, cutting back but by no means struggling to put food on the table. Could be a lot worse

Most of what i buy is food and diesel so I suspect that my personal inflation rate is well above the 9% we hear on the news, that takes into account all sorts of stuff I never buy.

I was actually part of the survey this year. They just collect all your receipts over a 2 week period, and average everything out based on that. So you might not have bought certain things in that period – bog roll, or wine, or whatever, but you also might have made some irregular purchases like a spanner or a telly or some pants. But it all, presumably, comes out in the wash when they aggregate everyone’s data!

Offer is a surprising 4.75% plus a fairly generous one off bonus. Really wasn’t expecting much due to the parent company being German and seeing significant impacts from the gas restrictions there.

This is somewhat offset by my partner who works in education having had very little if anything for the last 10 years.

First raise in a few years – 2.8%. Big churn of staff (IT company) as job hopping is the only way to stay anywhere near inflation and seems everyone would rather pay 10% more to get a suitable new person than keep the old one.

I should probably do the same but happy where I am otherwise and don’t have to work too hard. Thankfully past the nursery stage with the kids so finances actually in better shape now.

2.5% and only the first payrise since 2016 so god knows how much I’m down in real terms, having said that went from 20yrs of single income to double income household in 2016 too so still feeling relatively well off

Realistically I can’t expect a pay-rise in line with inflation, we’ve been offered 3% which the unions are likely to reject. We haven’t had a pay-rise in line with inlfation for 10 years. We’re also falling down the scale in terms of salaries compared to similare industries / institutions but strive to be an employer of choice.

I’d had one pay rise in 10 years of 2% until earlier this year when I got about 2.5%. I’m still way down on where inflation would put me, and jobs I could easily get are going for about 50% more now at other places due to inflation and industry demand.

However, our pay rises are dependent on our company’s performance, and we got that recent rise because we’d done well. And we’ve done well again so hopefully they’ll start coming more often.

I am now noticably worst off that pre-pandemic.

I changed job in 2021 which didn’t help as I would normally have negotiated a raise with my employer – but instead took a much more rewarding job with a similar salary. Due to the industry we operate in my current employer have been hit pretty hard by the energy crisis (as have we all) so no pay rise this year, but a lot of extra outlay.

It’s certainly given me cause to start budgeting better.

However, our pay rises are dependent on our company’s performance, and we got that recent rise because we’d done well. And we’ve done well again so hopefully they’ll start coming more often.

Is that part of your contract or just tradition? Until a few years ago our pay negotiators were assumed to be inflation rate in March, (year starts in April) plus a real terms rise of whatever the union could negotiate.

That got canned one financially tricky year and obviously once that precedent has been broken, we now have a new assumption.

There must be some serious other benefits if you’re not jumping easily to another job that pays half as much again!

I got 1.75% April but that was back paid for April 2021 to March 2022. Our branch union are hopeless at getting the settlement completed and HR are even worse at getting it sorted. So we are always 11 to 12 months late. On that basis we’ll see something like 3 or 4% in April next year by which time we’ll have had to cope with current cost of living pressures for the best part of a year. Local government at its best.

I make it that my pay will have dropped, in real terms, by about 9% since 2020. (Public sector, btw). I feel a lot less comfortable this year! The union is balloting us on strike action soon.

Also public sector here, also average wage (FTE, I’m part time due to caring responsibilities).

After 10 years of austerity, in 2020 we got a 3 year deal worth 13% overall in return for giving up some other terms and benefits. At the time it seemed a no brained.

Last increase came through in June, appreciate how lucky we were but feels a lot less generous now. Mortgage paid off luckily.

Is that part of your contract or just tradition?

I’m not actually sure.

There must be some serious other benefits if you’re not jumping easily to another job that pays half as much again!

Yes. It’s a good company to work for. I’ve been around the block a fair few times and worked for some absolute shit-shows, and I know how valuable a decent company and good colleagues is to me.

I’m in the public sector, but professional services at a university, so the figures being talked about in the media always bear no relation to what we ever get.
We’ve been offered 3.6%, we got 1.5% last year which was the best I’ve seen in over a decade.
I’m a bit above the mean average salary in the UK, about two years ago I worked out that since 2008 my job had fallen £10k per annum behind the equivalent private sector role, God forbid what it is now. The compound loss over that period was nearly two years salary

Staggered %5 rise this year.

Better than expected TBH.

Well part of my company managed to loose €4m a day in the first half of our financial year so I’m not expecting any pay rise! Fortunately well paid and moved jobs last year so pretty insulated from any problems. My kids (all NHS employees) I’m worried about and helping them out where I can.

I suppose one saving grace at my institution is that the senior brass start paying the new rate immediately, even whilst in negotiation with the unions, so we rarely have to get back pay which was common in my old uni, or when i was in local govt.

Private sector, I’ve been averaging 2-2.5% for the last few years, inc. current year so was reasonably content (was just enough to not be worth the hassle of looking for another job) but now not so much :p

Can’t recall when we last had a pay rise – maybe 5 years ago?

2019 was 3%

2020 was 0%

2021 was 0%

2022 onwards 0% unless they change the pay scales as apparently I am at the top of the scale after 13 years in this role.

My colleagues are getting 5% this year and again next year.

Public sector. Fortunately I’m on a good wage but the rise we’ve been given is a joke.

I’d be interested to understand peoples’ expectations re. wages in current circumstances, alongside what’s happening with uplifts or lack thereof. Or perhaps that’s too broad a brush, with each business/sector experiencing different things – so perhaps some background there too. Genuinely interested in a broader picture as an employer feeling squeezed in every direction!

We were struggling, my Wife is a Nurse and was geting pay rises and bonuses etc, but it wasn’t keeping up with inflation. My Pay hadn’t changed since 2017 or so.

Shit started to get very serious towards the end of last year, weekly food shopping on the credit card and current account empty by mid-month type bad. We’re a 4 person family with 2 incomes above the mean average full time UK salary.

I was able to remortage at the end of the year when I deal ended and we were very lucky to hit the sweet spot of increaded value and low rates, I also shifted all our other unsecured debt onto the mortgage to reduce our outgoings and managed to secure a 4% raise with a new commission structure that’s worth 6% – despite all this, we’re still only treading water, petrol costs hurt us. We both have to drive for work and fuel allowances haven’t moved.

During my last, and quite serious work review I negotiated a payrise equal to RPI index every April. The boss added the caviat that it hasn’t to be affordable by the business, neither of us were expecting that to be 11%.

I was also very lucky to jump on the fixes the G&E people were offering a few weeks ago when it looked like wholesale prices were falling, 24% over cap for 2 years, it was a dubious offer then, it looks fantastic now, between that and the £400 grant, my bills won’t go up in Oct.

Can’t recall when we last had a pay rise – maybe 5 years ago?

I’m not saying this is the case for you, but I’ve had this from a number of people over the years. When you dig a little deeper there’s often a “well, I’ve had a rate of inflation rise every year, but that’s not a pay rise is it” or a “well, I was red circled 4 years ago, so I’m being paid a bit more than my colleagues doing the same job still and they have had pay rises, but I’ve still not had a pay rise”. People seem to have very varyingly different interpretations of what a pay rise actually is.

3% here. For a private school that’s put it’s fees up by 15%. I can see why, but it’s not sitting well.

We’ve had 1.5 and 2% last few years. This year we gave 5% to lowest paid and 3% to others.

I’d be interested to understand peoples’ expectations re. wages in current circumstances? Or perhaps that’s too broad a brush, with each business/sector experiencing different things.

Our company was loss making and went bust in 2020, then restarted re-employing 1/4 of the staff. We were supposed to be raising new investment but Covid pretty much killed off that idea. Now we’re struggling to fulfill orders as we can’t buy components.

So in those circumstances I’m amazed I still have a job there and pay rises are simply unaffordable…

I’m not saying this is the case for you,

My pay hasn’t changed 1 cent – well actually it dropped 20% as I went down to a 4 day week at the end of 2019 – but my full time gross pay is unchanged since 2008 (just looked it up).

Still very well paid, so can’t and don’t complain about it.

We had a company wide increase of a minimum of 3% earlier this year, some discrepancies got up to 6% to balance things out. Fortunate enough to earn a decent salary anyway & in discussion for a separate increase due to picking up some more budgetary responsibility.

Other half is civil service so it’s been freezes for a while, but she also earns well anyway, their unions do the negotiations, but the talk is ~5%.

We’re currently undergoing ‘23 budgets & have planned in a minimum of 10% for next year, which will be nice 🙂

Couple of percent in January, after getting nothing in Jan 2021.
With the promise of a re-review in July based on how the year is going.
We have got… one off £1k bonus*, no raise.

*to be paid in August salary – last Friday in August. Guessing handing in my notice before that might compromise that?

I work directly for an America company with no UK entirety (other than me) so Brexit has actually saved the company money on my wages, plus the Marine industry has done very well from Covid. 6% this year, plus 2.5 days additional pay as a midterm bonus next month, 2021 was 5% plus 2 x bonuses of 2.5 days, 2020 was 3.5% no bonus, previous years were 5% per year.

i had a 9.09% pay rise at my appraisal earlier this year.

I feel very lucky to be paid what i do, especially as i have no clue what i am doing.

But still, the ever increasing cost of living scares the poop outta me. Its a good incentive to keep riding to work tho, as petrol costs make me feel sick.

No one in my department has ever had a raise other than cost of living. Better at your job? BFD. Learnt new skills? BFD.

0% rise for me this year though I did recieve a promotion earlier in the year so cannot really complain although it’s really not the same thing. Like yourself I am usually fairly resilient to inflation but I am certainly noticing a drop in my living standards over the last year.