U.K. Wage Growth Slows to 13-Month Low, Pay Researcher Reports

U.K. wage negotiators agreed on the smallest salary increases since September 2006 in the quarter through October as employers gave minimum pay raises to their lowest-earning workers, Incomes Data Services said.

{snip}

Salary gains for the lowest-paid slowed after the government ordered a 3.2 percent increase in the national minimum wage, the smallest gain since 2002. Bank of England policy maker David Blanchflower said Oct. 30 wage growth will stay “muted” as a record wave of immigration helps curb inflation pressures.

“It’s the lowest increase in a long time for the national minimum wage, and it’s having an impact on settlements,” Ken Mulkearn, editor of the London-based IDS’s pay report, said in an interview. The last time the minimum increase was lower was in 2002, when the gain was 2.4 percent, he said.

{snip}