With high food prices and household bills, many workers are hoping for a pay rise that will offset the effects of high inflation.
But with bottom lines under pressure, employers are looking for cost-cutting measures and pay rises may be neither practical nor sustainable.
While 23.5% of more than 900 workers surveyed for recruitment agency Aspire’s Q1 2023 report were awarded a salary increase in the last year that matched the rate of inflation (which was 10.1% at the end of March), 24.4% received a pay rise of between 6% and 10%. The other 52.1% saw their salaries increase by between 5% – and zero. Inflation has slipped slightly since the research was published but remained stubbornly high at 8.7% in June.