LONDON, May 7 (Reuters) - Median annual pay settlements offered by British private sector employers held steady in March, according to a survey published a week after the Bank of England left interest rates unchanged while it assesses inflationary pressure in the economy.
Incomes Data Research said on Thursday that the median pay rise awarded by major employers was 3.5% in the January to March period. IDR said pay awards might have risen in April when a 4.1% increase in Britain's minimum wage to 12.71 pounds ($17.32) an hour came into force.
"Higher-end awards worth 4% or more are more common in April than at the start of the year due to the influence of the uplift in the National Living Wage," Zoe Woolacott, a senior researcher at IDR, said.
IDR also said:
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The proportion of firms offering pay rises of 4% or more rose above 20% from 16% in February
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Wage settlements in private sector services rose to a median of 3.5% in March from 3.3% the month before
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Pay awards in manufacturing and production sectors were unchanged from February at 3.5%
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The survey was based on 87 awards between January 1 and March 31 which covered 630,455 employees
($1 = 0.7338 pounds)
Reporting by Suban Abdulla; editing by David Milliken
Source: Reuters