IRS predicts slackening in pay rises

23/01/2009

British workers' personal incomes are to come under pressure this year, due to firms making cutbacks during the economic downturn.

This is the stark warning of new research from the Industrial Relations Services (IRS), released today.

The figures show that the typical basic pay rise over October-December 2008 hit 3.8 per cent.

However, the IRS said that this trend would soon change - with salary increases contracting to 2.5 per cent by April, potentially below inflation.

"The record gap between pay rises and… inflation will narrow as we move through the year," Sheila Attwood at the IRS commented.

"There is already an indication that pay deals in January are lower than those at the end of 2008, and we expect them to fall further as the year progresses."

IRS' research was released on the day in which the government announced that the UK had officially entered recession.

Analysts, including those at influential economic thinktank RGE Monitors, predict that recovery will not begin before the end of the year.

Tags; Income Worries and Debt, Recent Graduate Debt,

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