The average hourly pay in the UK retail sector is up 4.6% in 2017, according to the British Retail Consortium’s analysis of the recent ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings data.
The average hourly wage in UK retail is now £8.59, the study found, with the 4.6% increase higher than the average wage increase across the UK economy as a whole (2.9%).
Retail is also closing the gender pay gap, the BRC said. The gender pay gap is lower in retail than for the UK economy as a whole and has fallen over the last year from 11.0% to 9.2%.
London has the highest hourly wage for retail workers, at an average of £10.15, with Northern Ireland boasting the lowest, at £7.75.
'Stark Contrast'
“This new data highlights a stark contrast between rapid pay growth in retail with the rest of the economy,” said Helen Dickinson, BRC chief executive. “The retail industry is over-performing the economy as a whole and is continuing to make progress on a journey to the higher paid and better jobs of the future.
“The National Living Wage has had a part to play in driving this exceptional growth in wages. However, far from being the whole story, strong productivity growth, fuelled by technological change has also contributed to year on year pay increases above the UK average, at all levels of the retail industry. And, despite fears to the contrary, there’s little evidence that these wage increases are coming at the expense of other wage-related benefits.”
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
