While regular pay experienced a real-terms drop of 1.2% in March 2022 (despite technically growing by 4.2%), total pay had a growth of 1.4% (theoretically 7.0% when not adjusted to inflation) which was much higher than expected.
But not all sectors have experienced equal growth in pay. The highest growth was for those in financial services, which saw an increase of 10.7% in their total pay, influenced greatly by a 31% rise in bonus payments.
Pay growth was much slower elsewhere in the private sector with regular pay falling below inflation being topped up by bonuses. Regular pay in hospitality and trade, for example, grew 6.4% while inflation sat at 7% year on year in March. Manufacturing pay felt this further, growing just 2.6%.
In the public sector, workers saw a total pay growth of just 1.6% while regular pay growth was 1.8%.
PAYE employee pay growth appears to have been highest in Tower Hamlets, the home of much of the UK’s financial services sector. Here employees saw growth of 11.6% in April. The lowest area of pay growth in the UK was Warrington which grew by 1.6%.
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