LONDON (Reuters) – More British employers are freezing staff pay or postponing annual wage settlements as they deal with the economic fallout from the coronavirus lockdown, a survey showed on Tuesday.
Human resources data provider XpertHR said 16% of pay deals in the three months to the end of June offered no increase in wages – up from 15% in the three months to May and around double the proportion in the three months to April.
“Many organisations are deferring a decision on their April pay award until later in the year, but indications are that many of these will come back and implement a pay freeze,” XpertHR pay and benefits editor Sheila Attwood said.
In the three months to the end of June, XpertHR recorded a 2.2% median basic pay award across the economy, unchanged from the previous period, based on a sample of 256 basic pay awards.
(Reporting by Andy Bruce)
