(PR in) HR Pulse | HR News Round-up: 15th – 21st May 2023
Photo by Mr Cup / Fabien Barral on Unsplash
Graduate salaries hit by c7% decline
An analysis by Indeed reveals that the real terms wages of graduates entering the working world have dropped by c£6.500 (c7%) on average since 2019 due to the increasing rates of inflation.
At first glance, the average salary of a graduate shows an increase from £24,000 to £26,500, but once adjusted to the current inflation rate this amount only represents £22,237.
Jack Kennedy, UK Economist at Indeed suggests this may be because employers are using the potential salaries of graduates to subsidise the pay rise of existing employees. Kennedy continues to explain that employers may also be offering lower real terms salaries to fund onboarding graduate training.
Indeed’s research also revealed that the pay premium of graduates dropped by 7% from 1970 (17%) to 1990 (10%).
Kennedy explains that this is due to labour shortages and rising inflation rates, wage growth has been focused on lower-wage industries such as hospitality, construction and manufacturing.
Source: The Telegraph.
Why aren’t remote workers spending time on career development?
WFH (Working From Home) Research has found that in-office workers spend almost an hour and a half (c80 minutes) on learning and career development per week.
Sarah McAreavey, People, Development and Learning Manager at Reflect Digital said that the evidence presented is understandable and some things can only be learnt in-office but urges employers to focus on inclusivity and equal opportunities for the development of all workers. McAreavey adds that there are many online services that help with personal learning.
Steve Lanigan, Co-founder of Academii seconds this by saying that the working world has evolved and Learning and Development (L&D) practitioners need to adapt and make learning more versatile in order to effectively support all working structures.
Source: People Management.
Employers ignore calls for salary transparency
Recently Adzuna released findings from its 7-year-long (2016 to 2023) analyses of c80 million UK job advertisements to understand where salary transparency is most and least prevalent.
The report revealed that salary transparency has dropped by 9.9% from April 2022 (61.4%) to April 2023 (51.5%) even though jobs with salary information listed are six times more likely to entice applicants. Salary transparency is also an important factor in fighting the gender pay gap.
The retail sector is the most tight-lipped, with less than a third (26.8%) of job ads sharing salary information. In general, April 2023 recorded the worst salary transparency drop when compared to last year.
Andrew Hunter, Co-founder of Adzuna, explains that this is due to a power shift in the labour market - employers are beginning to fill positions with ease they no longer feel the need to be transparent.
Hunter emphasises the importance of using salary transparency to tackle pay discrimination and to close pay gaps. He also claims that the UK market is falling behind cities such as New York and the EU which are focused on establishing new legislations to protect employees.
Source: Personnel Today.