Wages increase 3.8 per cent in year

Wages increase 3.8 per cent in year; skilled positions much more: national survey

Wages increased an average of 3.8 per cent for the year ended July 31st in the National Employers Wage and Salary survey, the Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern) reports.

"People with skills were rewarded with pay increases averaging 6.2 per cent," said David Lowe, EMA's Manager of Employment Relations.

"Increases of this order went to people in demand such as production supervisors and diesel motor mechanics.

"Base pay rates this year went up faster for middle management and supervisors (5 per cent) and other employees (4.3 per cent) than for their bosses (3.6 per cent).

"The survey results released for 30 job types today showed pay increases ranged from average increases of 9.7 per cent for Human Resources managers through to skilled shop salespeople whose average income went down by 2.8 per cent after double digit increases in both 2005 and 2004.

"Those receiving smaller increases in previous years were often in catch up mode this year, and vice versa.

"Those previously receiving below average increases are up towards the top of the list this year; taking a trend over three years or so is more reliable than data taken in isolation in any one year.

"No dramatic rises are in evidence this year for particular skill sets.

"In general employers are prepared to pay more to retain key staff and attract new qualified people and these premiums for specific skills show up in wage increases. But this year that does not appear to have occurred.

"Other data from the survey covers shift payments, redundancy, overtime, service allowances, employee assistance programmes, EEO programmes, child care, flexible working hours, annual leave, and staff turnover.

"The National Employers Wage and Salary Survey now in its 13th year is the longest established. This year data was gathered from 641 companies on 38,016 employees across 213 different job positions."

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