This document is intended to provide the latest economic data to assist in the development of pay claim documents. It covers the main economic themes that tend to shape pay claims, from inflation and its impact on wages to comparisons against prevailing pay settlements and average earnings trends. The document is accompanied by a spreadsheet so that the source data used to generate the graphs below can be adapted for the circumstances of individual pay claims. Bargaining Support Group can also make available a set of core questions for any pay survey that may be conducted in support of the claim. To obtain a copy, please email bsg@unison.co.uk
For the great majority of public service staff, pay claims or evidence to pay review bodies are still handled at a national or UK level. However, it is becoming increasingly common for organisations delivering public services to stand outside of this framework and this material may be of particular value for development of pay claims for members in these circumstances.
In addition to the economic data, the appendices at the back of this report provide advice to branches on drawing up claims and the wording of a basic model claim for insertion of local and up-to-date information. If you have any comments on how this material can be improved, please contact the Bargaining Support Group though the email address above.
1 Cost of living
1.1 Historical inflation rates
1.2 Forecast inflation rates
1.3 Inflation case studies
1.4 Impact of inflation
1.5 Reason for comparing wages to RPI
1.6 Inflation for staff on low pay
1.7 Inflation components

2. Pay settlements
3. Average Earnings
3.1 Earnings comparisons by occupation
3.2 Earnings comparisons by region
3.3 Earnings of low-paid staff
3.4 Earnings of high income groups
4. Labour Market
5. Other norms for negotiations
Appendix 1 – Advice on drawing up a pay claim
Appendix 2
– Model format for pay claim
Appendix 3 – Quick reference stats for pay bargaining

1.1 Historical inflation rates
The graph below allows for plotting of an organisation’s pay awards against the Consumer
Price index (CPI) and Retail Price Index (RPI) over the last three years.
RPI inflation has been running between 2.5% and 3.5% over most over the last two years, but has gone into sharp decline over recent months. The latest inflation figures put RPI at
1.6% and CPI at 0.5%. [The reasons why RPI is the more relevant reference point for pay bargaining are outlined in section 1.5]
Source: Office for National Statistics website at www.ons.gov.uk
Between 2010 and 2014, the cost of living, as measured by the Retail Price Index, rose by a total of 19.8%.

1.2 Forecast inflation rates
The Treasury average of independent forecasts predicts that RPI inflation will rise by 2.4% in
2015 and then accelerate to over 3% a year between 2016 and 2018. The medium term forecast put the expected rates at the following levels.
Year RPI forecast
2015
2016
2017
2018
2.4
3.2
3.4
3.2
Source: HM Treasury Forecasts for the UK Economy at http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/data_forecasts_index.htm
If these rates turn out to be correct, the cost of living employees face will have grown by almost 13% by the close of 2018, following the pattern set out in the graph below.
1.3 Inflation Case Studies
The Office of National Statistics provides a tool entitled the Personal Inflation Calculator
(PIC), which enables a sample of case studies to be developed as part of a pay claim.
Members can be asked to provide the details that are fed in to the calculator at http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/HTMLDocs/dvc14/index.html

A graph showing the individual’s personal inflation rate against the national average can then be developed (the input and output screens from the PIC are shown below). To view the PIC web page, you will need an “SVG-enabled” web browser.
1.4 Impact of inflation
Illustrations of the impact of inflation on wages can be shown through the type of graph shown below, with actual salary tracked against the salary that would have been payable if it had risen with inflation, which providers an indicator of the value stripped out of wages by the impact of inflation. The table for deriving examples appropriate to your organisation by entering actu al salary and pay award data can be found on the “impact of inflation” tab in the attached spreadsheet.

The most recent data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings suggests that the real value of average UK pay packets has fallen by 12% since 2010, with employees losing over
£2,000 a year from the value of their pay packet since the government came to office. The average worker wou ld have accumulated more than £13,000 more had their wage kept pace with inflation.
For the public sector worker who has not benefited from any incremental progression in their pay, the decline has been even sharper. Between 2010 and 2014, the public sector worker on the median wage saw a 14% cut in the real value of their earnings, leaving their 2014 wage £4,800 down on the value of their earnings at the start of 2010 and the accumulated loss from their wage failing to keep pace with infla tion each year stood at over £16,000.
1.5 Reason for comparing wages to RPI
UNISON believes that the Retail Price Index (RPI) measure of inflation represents the best measure of changes in prices faced by employees, as it includes the housing costs that form a significant part of most employee’s expenditure, data collection is tied more tightly to working households than the Consumer Price Index (CPI). However, CPI also utilises a statistical method called the geometric mean. UNISON does not believe that this is an appropriate method for calculating inflation and results in a consistent under-estimation of the real inflation in the cost of living faced by members. Therefore, UNISON supports the use of RPI, which remains the most widely used basis for pay negotiations across the public and private sector 1 .
For a more complete explanation of inflation indicators and arguments for countering any employer attempts to move away from RPI as the key reference point for pay bargaining, click here
UNISON commissioned research that provides a very full critique of CPI and the main arguments summarised in that research can be accessed by clicking here
1.6 Inflation for staff on low pay
The Croner Reward cost of living survey 2 provides a rare indicator of the impact of inflation on differi ng income groups as it analyses the required income to maintain a family’s existing standard across eight income groups. The 2010 and 2011 reports showed that the lowest income group experienced bigger percentage rises in required income than any other income group at 6% and 6.6% respectively, though this tendency was arrested in 2012, when the lowest income groups saw their required income growth drop below the average to
5.2%.
However, long term studies of the impact of inflation on different income groups still suggest that low income groups suffer disproportinately. For example, the Institute of Fiscal Studies
1 Incomes Date Services, RPI still dominant, November 20134
2 Croner Reward, Cost of Living Regional Comparisons, September 2013

published a report 3 in 2011 which found that the greater tendency of low income households to spend a higher proportion of their income on fuel and water meant that, on average, lower income households had higher inflation rates than higher-income households. Over the 10 year period studied, the group within the second lowest income decile experienced a 41% increase in prices while the highest income decile experienced a 33% increase. The study also went on to note that this differential is likely to continue given the forecasts from the
Department of Energy and Climate Change that point to price increases in domestic fuel above that of general inflation over the short term.
This analysis was bolstered in 2014 when the Institute of Fiscal Studies published a study which found that, between 2008 and 2013, the lowest income fifth of households had faced average annual inflation that was 1% higher than the highest income fifth.
4
1.7 Inflation components
The changes in the price of components of the Retail Price Index over the year to December
2014 are shown in the table below.
Item
Personal expenditure
Alcohol and tobacco
Consumer durables
Housing and household expenditure
Mortgage interest payments and council tax
Average % increase to December 2014
4.0
3.9
3.3
2.5
1.7
Travel and leisure
Food and catering
-0.3
-0.4
All goods 0.3
All services
All items
2.0
1.6
Source: Office for National Statistics, Consumer Price Inflation Reference Tables, December 2014. Latest figures can be obtained from the Office of National Statistics website at www.ons.gov.uk
One of the main reasons for the drop in the inflation rate was declines in electricity and gas prices after years of strong growth. However, a 6.4% acceleration in prices for clothing and footwear, along with a 3.9% rise in rail fares and 2.9% rise in rents were the most signififant aspects of inflation that bucked teh general trend.
The price of housing also remains one of the biggest issues facing employees and their families. Across the UK, house prices rose by 10% in the year to November 2014, taking the
3 Peter Levell and Zoe Oldfield, The spending patterns and inflation experience of low-income households over the past decade, Institute of Fiscal Studies, June 2011
4 Institute of Fiscal Studies, IFS Green Budget 2014

average house price to £271,000 5 . First time buyers bore the brunt of increases, seeing average prices jump 11%. However, the picture varied markedly across the nations of the
UK, with England experiencing by far the biggest increase at 10.4%, followed by Northern
Ireland at 11.7%, Scotland at 4.4% and Wales at 3.1% (to see price changes in English regions, click here ). The ratio of average house prices to average earnings grew in every country of the UK between 2012 and 2013 except Scotland. The ratio stands at 11.8 in
England (14 in London), 8.7 in Wales, 8.4 in Scotland and 7.1 in Northern Ireland 6 .
The rate of increase in rents has been more modest at 3%, but average rents have nonetheless hit £767 a month 7 . However, new tenancy rates have been increasing much more rapidly and more in line with the mortgage market. New rents across the UK grew at
7.6% in the year to December 2014 8 , reaching £867 per month. For a regional breakdown on rental price inflation click here
Though not specifically assessed by CPI or RPI figures, childcare costs represent a key area of expenditure for many staff (UNISON surveys have consistently found that around a third of staff have child caring responsibilities).Therefore, it is also worth noting that the annual
Family & Childcare Trust survey 9 for 2014 found that average childcare costs have risen by
27% over the last five years. The average cost of sending a child under two to nursery parttime is now £5,710 per year and a family with two children in full-time childcare pays £11,700 a year.
Current inflation rates can mask longer term changes in the cost of living that have taken place since 2010. For instance, food price inflation is currently quite low, but since 2010 it has seen major rises, as reflected in the table below.
Item Item
Food
Rise in cost since 2010
Item
13% Potatoes
Rise in cost since 2010
22% Electricity
Rise in cost since 2010
28%
Gas
Petrol
Rail fares
38%
12%
21%
Beef
Fish
Butter
26%
20%
29%
Fruit
Rent
12%
11%
Mortgage interest payments
8%
Water 18% Cheese 15%
5 Office for National Statistics, House Price Index, November 2014
6 Office for National Statistics, Trends in the UK Housing Market, 2014
7 LSL Property Services. Buy to Let Index. Index, December 2014
8 HomeLet Rental Index, December 2014
9 Family & Childcare Trust, Childcare Costs Survey 2014

Pay settlements across the economy have been running at around the 2% mark over most of the last year. This level of settlements is well below the long-run median of between 3% and 3.5%.
Source: Industrial Relation Service - www.xperthr.co.uk
Since April 2010, a huge gap has opened up between private and public sector settlements.
Limited by the pay cap, average public sector pay settlements ran at 1% through almost all of 2013 and well into 2014 until edging up over recent months. Over the last two months, settlements have risen to 1.5%, but this was largely due to a quirk in the XpertHR system for measuring settlements, which is biased toward the lowest wage rates and since a number of public sector deals have included higher increases for staff on lower wages the XpertHR figures show a larger increase than has been experienced by most public sector staff.
Incomes Data Services continues to show average public sector pay settlements running at
1%, in line with the pay cap set to run until 2016 and almost half the 2% rate prevalent in the private sector.
Source: Industrial Relation Service - www.xperthr.co.uk
The gap between the public and private sector is predicted to remain over the coming year, with private sector employers expecting settlements of 2% over the year to August 2015 10 .
10 Pay trends October 2014, XpertHR

A summary of 2014 pay rises among some of UNISON’s largest bargaining groups is shown below:
Bargaining Group
2014 pay rises
Local Government
Services NJC (England,
Wales & Northern
Ireland)
BASIC: 2.2% from Jan 15 for staff above SCPs 10 and non-consolidated payments ranging £325 to £100
EXCEPTION: Rises ranging from 8.56% to 2.32% for SCPs 5-10
Scottish Joint Council for
Local Government
Employees
Health - Agenda for
Further Education
(England)
1%
ENGLAND
BASIC: 0% SCOTLAND
EXCEPTION: 1% nonconsolidated for staff at top EXCEPTION: £300 staff addition for staff on basic
WALES consolidated
EXCEPTION: Living
(Members remain in dispute over this offer) pay below £21,000 and living wage as bottom point wage as bottom point
BASIC: 1%
EXCEPTION: Bottom point raised to living wage
Higher Education
BASIC: 2%
EXCEPTION: Lowest pay point raised to Living Wage for staff on 35 hour week
Sixth Form Colleges
(England)
1% increase and deletion of bottom two points on the scales
For a fuller list of pay settlements, that includes other areas of the public sector, community / voluntary organisations, water, environment, transport and energy companies, as well as other major private sector organsiations, click on this link - latest pay settlements
The graph below shows trends in average earnings growth over the last two years. Since
April 2013, private sector earnings growth has been running ahead of the public sector every month except two. In November 2014, the rate across the economy was 1.7%, private sector growth was 2.1% and average public sector wages rose by 0.7%.

Source: Office of National Statistics, Labour Market Statistics, January 2015
Forecasts of average earnings predict that average earnings growth will rise to 2.5% in
2015 11 . Beyond that, forecasts predict 3.6% by 2016, 3.7% by 2017 and 3.8% by 2018 12 .
However, earnings predictions have been consistently over optimistic in recent years.
Before public sector average earnings growth dropped well below the private sector rate in
2013, average earnings were often used as a basis to argue that the public sector continues to see improvements in pay that are not matched by the private sector and particularly as a basis for attacking pay progression.
The flaw in these arguments, aside from the simple distortion of staff allocation noted above, is that the use of average earnings growth for comparisons does not simply reflect changes due to pay settlements and pay progression.
Changes in the average are affected by a multitude of factors that affect the composition of the public and private workforce. Any changes that swell the lower paid end of the workforce and/or reduce the proportion of higher paid employees, such as differences between the sectors in recruiting staff on part time or zero hours contracts, or redundancies that hit the most recent recruits hardest, will act as a downward pressure on the average.
The government’s drive toward greater outsourcing in itself tends to lower private sector average earnings growth and raise public sector growth because of the marked tendency for outsourcing to focus on lower paid sections of the workforce.
11
HM Treasury Forecasts for the UK Economy at http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/data_forecasts_index.htm
12 Office for Budgetary Responsibility, Economic and Fiscal Outlook, March 2014

Therefore, average earnings growth does not offer any kind of sound basis for judging actual changes in the pay packet of a worker in the public or private sector. Pay settlement data forms a much sounder basis for comparison as it eradicates the differences in workforce composition that affects average earnings growth comparisons. However, it is easy to see from the graph above why the government and employers are less keen to make comparisons on this basis, as private sector pay settlements have on average been running at double the public sector rate over the last year.
An alternative picture is provided by the VocaLink Take Home Pay Index. It records the average take home pay among the FTSE 350 companies (split into manufacturing and service sectors) as well as a sample of over 600 public sector organisations.
When the effect of inflation on take home pay is taken into account (even given that
VocaLink use consumer price inflation, which is consistently lower than retail price inflation, as the basis for their calculation) the graph below suggests that average pay shrunk by 0.7% for public sector workers in the year to October 2014. The continued shrinkage of public sector pay stands in contrast to the private services sector, where, though still very modest, the real value of pay has been growing every month except one since September 2013 (as shown by the graph below).
3.1 Earnings comparisons by occupation
The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) provides data that can form useful comparators for changes in average earnings among service group staff. The table below shows the change in median gross annual pay for full-time staff within the main job categories listed. A spreadsheet is attached containing the table and accompanying graph, which can be updated to show appropriate service group occupational changes in earnings against any useful comparator on the list. A listing of earnings growth for more specific jobs

within these categories can be found on the Office of National Statistics website by clicking here
Job Type
All employees
Managers, directors and senior officials
Corporate managers and directors
Other managers and proprietors
Professional occupations
Science, research, engineering and technology professionals
Health professionals
Teaching and educational professionals
Business, media and public service professionals
Associate professional and technical occupations
Science, engineering and technology associate professionals
Health and social care associate professionals
Protective service occupations
Culture, media and sports occupations
Business and public service associate professionals
Administrative and secretarial occupations
Administrative occupations
Secretarial and related occupations
Skilled trades occupations
Skilled agricultural and related trades
Skilled metal, electrical and electronic trades
Skilled construction and building trades
Textiles, printing and other skilled trades
Caring, leisure and other occupations
Caring personal service occupations
Leisure, travel and related personal service occupations
Sales and customer service occupations
Sales occupations
Customer service occupations
Process, plant and machine operatives
Process, plant and machine operatives
Transport and mobile machine drivers and operatives
Elementary occupations
Elementary trades and related occupations
Elementary administration and service occupations
1.8
2.1
2.1
0.9
-1.9
0.8
1.0
-0.6
-0.7
1.4
0.7
2.5
0.5
-0.6
0.2
-2.7
0.8
1.5
-0.1
0.8
0.7
1.3
0.1
Annual % change
2013/14
0.1
0.7
2.0
2.5
1.1
0.3
-0.3
1.0
1.8
0.2
0.6
0.2

3.2 Earnings comparisons by region
The Annual Survey of Hours Earnings provides a breakdown of pay levels right down to the level of parliamentary constituency, which may be of value for comparisons.
The full set of tables for workers within a region and constituency can be found at http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/ashe/annual-survey-of-hours-and-earnings/2014-provisionalresults/2014-provisional-table-9.zip
The full-time gross pay set out in table 9.7 will frequently provide the most common basis for comparison.
An interactive map summarising median earning levels across the UK’s local authorities is made available by the Office of National Statistics at http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/HTMLDocs/dvc126/index.html
(Please note that this map does not function on older browsers)
The Equality Trust has also produced a summary of regional pay levels in the report set out at http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/sites/default/files/attachments/resources/A%20Divided%20Bri tain.pdf
Data on the proportion of employees paid below the living wage is also available by parliamentary constituency at http://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/House%20of%20Commons%20LW%20data.xlsx
For England, a table setting out the cost of housing relative to wages by local authority district is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/321017/Table
_577.xlsx
A regional breakdown of rental price inflation is available at http://homelet.co.uk/assets/documents/HL3266-0914-September-HomeLet-Rental-Index.pdf
3.3 Earnings of low paid staff
A number of valuable wage benchmarks exist for comparing against the lower end of pay scales. The adult minimum wage currently rises to £6.50 an hour from 1 October 2014, while the “living wage” defined by the Living Wage Foundation/Citizens UK was raised to £7.85 an hour in 2014 and the Greater London Authority put t he living wage in the capital at £9.15.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation also calculates a Minimum Income Standard, which is based on

n 2014, that standard sto od at £16,300 for a single person and £20,300 each for a couple with two children, both working full-time 13 .
The Living Wage has become a standard benchmark for the minimum needed for low-paid staff to have a “basic but acceptable” standard of living.
There are now in excess of 1,000 employers accredited as living wage employers by the
Living Wage Foundation, including some of the UK’s largest private companies. Across the public sector, the Scotland government has established the living wage within all its public sector, organisations, and minimum rates in the Wales NHS, England Further Education
Colleges and Higher Education have been raised to the living wage. Support staff in more than 12,000 schools across the UK are also set to be paid the living wage as a result of a recent agreements.
3.4 Earnings of high income groups
You may be able to collect specific data on earnings increases received by such figures as chief executives in your organisation. For pay claims within private companies, any company of a certain size has to disclose the remuneration of its board within the annual accounts (please contact Bargaining Support on bsg@unison.co.uk
if you are unable to obtain a copy of a company’s accounts).
It may be worth pointing out the general background set by the pay of FTSE 100 directors in shaping staff perceptions of fairness in pay awards and influencing workforce morale. The graph below shows the median growth rate in remuneration of FTSE 100 directors over the last four years. Averaging 6.75% during the years of the public sector pay freeze, their remuneration (composed of basic pay, bonuses and share options) grew by just under 14% in the first year of the 1% pay cap and 21% on the second year.
Source: Incomes Data Services
13 Joseph Rowntree Foundation, A Minimum Income Standard for the UK in 2014, July 2014

The average remuneration package for FTSE 100 chief executives was worth £4.7m in
2013, which was 174 times the average workers’ salary 14 . The main factor in the rapid growth of chief executive remuneration was down to long-term incentive plans, which enable them to draw massive personal gains from increases in share prices.
The same pattern has been apparent in pension entitlements, with the latest TUC study 15 showing that the average FTSE 100 directors’ pension entitlement stands at £259,947 per annum, which is 25 times the average worker’s pension of £10,452. In addition, while the normal pension retirement age has been pushed toward 65 across much of the economy, the most common normal retirement age for directors stands at 60. This continued the trend of the last decade, which has seen chief executive pay increase by about 500% while pay for ordinary workers pay has gone up by 20 % before taking into account the effect of inflation.
Similarly, shareholders received a 21% increase in dividend payments in 2014, with income hitting £97bn 16 . In 2015, UK shareholders are set to receive £85bn 17 .
The contrast between public sector pay and income for chief executives, dividends for shareholders and company profits across the UK is illustrated by the graph below.
* Average public sector pay settlements over the year to November 2014 (Incomes Data Services)
** Corporations' operating surpluses between Q3 2013 and Q3 2014 (Office for National Statistics, Quarterly National Accounts, December
2014)
*** Growth in median FTSE 100 chief executive remuneration between 2012 and 2013 (ncomes Data Services, Directors Pay Report,
November 2014)
**** Growth in shareholder dividend payments between 2013 and 2014 (Capita Asset Services, Dividend Monitor, October 2014)
14 The High Pay Centre, August 2014
15 TUC, PensionsWatch 2013
16 Capita, UK Dividend Monitor, October 2014
17 Markit research, 2015

This pattern also continues the long term trend examined by the TUC 18 , which found that the proportion of value produced by the economy going to wages dropped from 59% to
53% over the three decades to 2008, while the profit share grew from 25 to 29%.
18 TUC, Where Have All the Wages Gone?, H.Reed and J.M.Himmelweit

Recruitment and vacancy rates
Unemployment rates and vacancy rates across the economy form the backdrop to the
UK’s labour market and have a major impact on the pressures facing an employer to raise wages and attract / retain staff.
The material below sets out this general backdrop to the labour market and provides figures on trends in vacancy and turnover rates that may form a useful comparator for vacancy and turnover rates in your organisation.
Official unemployment figures were running at 1.9m over the three months to November
2014, down from 2.5m two years previously.
The proportion of the economically active population who were estimated to be unemployed averaged 5.8% over the three months to November2014, down from 7.8% two years previously. To see the regional breakdown of unemployment rates across the
UK, click here
The latest Treasury forecasts predict the UK unemployment rate will continue to fall to
5.5% in 2015.
This meant that there were around 2.8 unemployed people for every vacancy on average in the three months to November 2014, down from over five per vacancy two years previously and closing in on the pre recession rate of 2.5 unemployed people per vacancy.
Across the economy, the number of vacancies has grown by 22% over the last year and now stands at 700,000. The table below shows the growth in vacancies among the main public service categories, where expansion has been greater than the average.
Across economy
Public admin & defence; compulsory social security
Education Human health
& social work
% growth in vacancies - year to Oct - Dec 2014
22 37 26 34
However, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) exposed the scale of competition for vacancies in some areas when it reported that, on average, low skill jobs are attracting 52 applicants, medium skill jobs are receiving 40 applicants and high skill jobs are currently attracting 22 applicants.
19
19 CIPD, Labour Market Outlook Survey, Autumn 2014

A recent labour market survey by CIPD also shows that public sector employers are now having greater difficulties filling vacancies than the private sector, which may reflect the impact of the pay freeze and pay cap on attracting staff.
20
The costs to the employer of losing staff were highlighted in the finding that median recruitment cost for filling senior manager / director vacancies stood at £5,000 while other employees cost £2,000 to replace.
The occupations for which organisations are experiencing particular difficulties in recruitment were highlighted in the table below.
Occupation % respondents facing recruitment difficulties
Managers and professionals / specialists
Technical
Senior managers / directors
Manual / craft
52
46
29
9
Services (customer, personal, protective and sales)
Admin & secretarial
Other
7
3
9
The reasons given for facing recruitment difficulties are summarised in the table below
20 CIPD, Labour Market Outlook, Spring 2014

A 2012 survey of public sector managers conducted by the Centre for Economics and
Business Research and employment website totaljobs.com found that more than twothirds reported a lack of new talented staff was hitting efficiency in their organisation.
The deteriorating position of pay, pensions and terms and conditions relative to the private sector led managers to observe that poor perception of the public sector was a "key barrier" to recruitment.
The 2014 XpertHR labour turnover report recorded a further rise in voluntary resignation rates across the economy to almost 13% in 2013, with private sector services hitting 14% and manufacturing and production 8%. Xpert HR’s sample size was not sufficient to declare a figure for the public sector in 2013, but in 2012 the resignation rate was running at 8%. A sectoral and occupational breakdown of the results showed resignation rates running at 14% in the voluntary sector. 10% among higher education academic staff, 7% among higher education non-academic staff and 3% among housing sector staff. Average turnover rates (which measures the proportion of employees who leave an organisation for any reason – resignation, retirement, dismissal or redundancy) rose to 21% across the economy in 2013. The breakdown among sectors was 23% in private sector services,
14% in manufacturing & production and 10% in the public sector.

The following factsheets include sections on prevailing norms in the economy for various other aspects of pay, terms and conditions that may be useful as part of pay claims.
Particularly in periods when it is difficult to make progress on basic pay, other forms of benefits / allowances for staff may provide useful avenues for negotiation.
Latest pay settlements
Sick pay norms
Standby and call-out payment norms
Norms for hours and annual leave
London Allowances Factsheet
Most common benefits / allowances offered by employers

1. Planning
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Plan in advance and consult fully with the members. The starting point should be approximately three months in advance of the annual settlement date. In order to facilitate a successful outcome to the pay cliam, try to establish an input into the annual budget setting exercise.
2. Information in the Claim
A pay claim should take account of the following:
Current pay awards in the sector
Inflation (always focus on the RPI measure of inflation, not CPI, partly because it includes housing costs)
Demonstrating affordability
Comparisons of pay against similar occupations / sectors
Impact of pay on recruitment and retention
Impact of pay on workforce morale
Background information on conditions issues, such as annual leave, travel allowances and family friendly provision
The graph below shows the results of a 2014 survey by Incomes Data Services of what employers regard as the most important factors in determining pay rises.

-
-
-
-
-
-
Information you can seek from your employer
Last year’s pay award
Turnover projections
Impact of restructuring/reorganisation
Pay bill and gender breakdown
Annual accounts
Directors pay awards
3. Accessing information
You can request information directly from the employer, and if you have recognition the employer has a legal duty to provide bargaining information including on pay, conditions of service, staffing levels and financial information. See the ACAS code of practice on http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/2/q/CP02_1.pdf
The Information and Consultation of Employees (ICE) Regulations can give workers the right to be informed and consulted about an employers current situation and future plans. You can view a factsheet on the ICE Regulations here: http://www.unison.org.uk/foractivists/help-and-advice/supporting-members/negotiating-and-bargaining/in-depth-guides/
You can also access further background information about individual companies (such as press stories, registered accounts and contract awards) by emailing UNISON Bargaining
Support at bsg@unison.co.uk
4. Consultation with members
Above all keep the members informed and on board – this strengthens your position. You may want to consider setting up a working group to put forward negotiating proposals. Use the pay consultation as an opportunity to recruit new members.
5. Training
Training on negotiating skills is available via your regional office.

This model pay claim has been written as a basic framework statement that allows for the insertion of the latest economic data set out in the main body of this document and the accompanying spreadsheet. Feel free to change, add or delete sections as required to make the most powerful case for the members we are representing. Much greater levels of detail are available in the main body of this document if you wish to insert them into this model claim.
Text in square brackets [like this] is for guidance or for you to add in information which is particular to this claim. Bracketed text will also tell you where to find the information included in the claim and how to update or adapt it.
While it is always good to have a well researched, professional looking claim, it is vital to use pay negotiations as an organising and recruitment opportunity. Make sure that you involve as many of your members as possible in preparing for negotiations. Hold meetings to consult on the content of the claim. Set up a working group to research the issues and develop bargaining proposals. Use the issues raised in your negotiations to recruit new members. You will be most effective if your employer knows that the membership is fully involved and solidly behind you as their negotiators.
PAY CLAIM FOR [INSERT YEAR]
SUBMITTED BY UNISON TO [NAME OF ORGANISATION]
1. INTRODUCTION
This pay claim is submitted by UNISON on behalf of staff working for [organisation] .
UNISON’s claim seeks to achieve the following:
A pay rise to help restore and maintain living standards of staff in the face of significant rises in the cost of living.
Appropriate reward for the hard work our members have put in to provide quality services, boosting the reputation of [organisation] .
Reward for the increasing levels of stress faced by front line workers arising from
[important elements of job, e.g. increasing number of clients, reduced funding per client]
[If you have decided to ask for a Living Wage, otherwise delete] a settlement which ensures that nobody is paid less than the nationally recognised Living
Wage rate.

UNISON is therefore submitting the following claim for [year] which seeks to improve and enhance the morale and productivity of these staff. Meeting our claim will give the
[organisation] the opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to creating a workforce which is well-paid and high in morale and productivity. The claim is straightforward and realistic.
2. SUMMARY OF CLAIM
We are seeking:
A [__%] cross the board increase on all salary points and allowances
[any other additions in payments or conditions]
3. BACKGROUND TO THE CLAIM
A substantial increase will help restore and maintain living standards of the staff who have seen their pay eroded considerably in recent years
[Where appropriate insert details from consultation – this need only be brief and draw reference if appropriate to the previous years pay offers if they have been low, any changes to working practices that have taken place, also again if appropriate if the settlement of the previous years award was late.]
The greatest asset of the [organisation] are its employees. Staff are looking to this pay round for evidence of the value which the [organisation] places upon them.
This claim is both realistic and fair. The following gives full justification for the claim.
UNISON hopes that the [management board] will give this claim the full consideration and response which the staff expect and richly deserve.
4. COMPARATIVE PAY
[Organisation] staff have endured years of comparatively poor pay settlements, as the following data clearly indicates . [Delete if not applicable]
4.1 COMPARISON WITH INFLATION
[Organisation] increases pay
Retail Price Index rise for year
[April annual inflation shown but for other dates see inflation spreadsheet ]
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
[Insert pay rise]
[Insert pay rise]
[Insert pay rise]
[Insert pay rise]
5.20%
3.50%
2.90%
2.50%

Between 2010 and 2014, pay in [organisation] rose by only [__ %] ,falling behind the rise in inflation, which rose by [__ %] This represents a fall in real living standards for
[organisation] employees.
Recent studies also show that low income households have suffered inflation rates that are
1% higher than the average over recent years because of the rapid rise in basic costs such as food, energy and transport 21 , eroding the value of wages for low-paid staff even further.
4.2 COMPARISON WITH PAY AWARDS
The ability of [organisation] to attract and retain staff in the long term will be damaged if the pay of its staff falls behind the going rate in the labour market. The latest pay award was behind the median pay settlement for the sector of [__ %] in the year to [insert year] and comparable organisations.
[See
p-to-date sector rates and for summaries of organisational rates within sectors ]
Morale will also be damaged if staff see their pay award as unfair when compared to the board of directors, who received a [_%] pay rise in 2013/14, taking their pay to [_ times] that of the average worker at [organisation].
[If you are unable to obtain details of pay awards for the organisation’s directors / chief executives, contact the Bargaining Support Group on bsg@unison.co.uk , who may be able to access the details from organisational accounts]
5. INFLATION FORECASTS
The rate of increase in the cost of living facing employees is expected to grow in the coming years and run in excess of 3% every year between 2016 and 2018.
Year RPI forecast Cumulative increase in cost of living
2015
2016
2017
2.4
3.2
3.4
2018 3.2
Source: HM Treasury Forecasts for the UK Economy
2.4
5.7
9.3
12.8
21 Institute of Fiscal Studies, IFS Green Budget 2014

6. MINIMUM WAGE
The adult minimum wage rate will be increased to £6.50 in October 2014, from the 2013-14 rat e of £6.31.
Currently the lowest pay point in [organisation] is [£] – just [£] above the minimum wage
For an employer aiming to provide high quality services, this kind of poverty pay is unacceptable. It is even more concerning that this is happening in an area with a higherthan-average cost of living.
[For the most up to date version of these statistics see the document entitled
“National Minimum Wage Factsheet” which can be found here: http://www.unison.org.uk/for-activists/help-and-advice/supportingmembers/negotiating-and-bargaining/in-depth-guides/ ]
7. LIVING WAGE
The ‘Living Wage’ is increasingly being used to determine the basic level of income required to avoid poverty and have a ‘low cost but acceptable’ standard of living.
There are two Living Wage rates: one for London and one for the rest of the UK. The London
Living Wage is set by GLA Economics, funded through the Mayor of London. The new rate is £9.15 an hour. The national rate is set by the Centre for Social Policy Research based at
Loughborough University. The new rate is £7.85 an hour.
It is becoming increasingly seen as unacceptable for employers to pay lower than the Living
Wage. The reputation of [organisation] is at serious risk of long term damage if it continues to operate by paying poverty wages.
[Organisation] should immediately increase the lowest pay rates to a level above the current national and (for London) London Living Wage rates.
[For the most up to date version of these statistics see the document entitled
“Campaigning, organising and negotiating for a Living Wage - A UNISON Guide” which can be found here: http://www.unison.org.uk/for-activists/help-andadvice/supporting-members/negotiating-and-bargaining/in-depth-guides/ ]
8. AFFORDABILITY
The affordability of this claim is clear from the latest [organisation] accounts, which show a surplus of
[£_]
for 2013/14.
[For the accounts of a private or community / voluntary organisation, please contact
Bargaining Support at bsg@unison.co.uk]

9. RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION
With unemployment falling across the economy, vacancies are getting harder to fill and the vacancy / turnover rate at [organisation] has increased over the last year to [_%] .
This compares unfavourable with the average turnover rate across the economy of 21%
[alternatively insert 10% for public sector].
10. CONCLUSION
There can be no doubt that all staff working for the [organisation] have seen their real earnings fall in comparison both with those doing similar jobs elsewhere. To deliver a quality service the [organisation] will have to rely on staff input and the retention of a specialist, skilled, experienced and dedicated workforce. Competition for that workforce from other sectors is strong .
Despite the difficult financial context of this year’s negotiations, 2010 is the year in which the
[organisation] can begin to make a real difference to the pay of its staff. This is a fair and realistic claim which we ask the [organisation] to meet in full.

Pay Settlements
Sector
Whole economy
Public
Private
Reference Period
12 months to Jan 2015
12 months to Jan 2015
Median %
2.5
1
2.5 12 months to Jan 2015
Inflation
Reference Data
Retail Price Index (RPI)
Consumer Price Index (CPI)
Average Weekly Earnings (Total Pay)
Reference Period Growth Rate %
Year to Dec 2014
Year to Dec 2014
1.6
0.5
Interquart. Range %
2.0 – 2.8
1.0 – 2.0
2.0 – 2.91
Index
257.5
128.2
Reference Data
Whole economy
Public sector
Private sector
Reference Period Growth Rate %
Sept 2014 - Nov 2014 1.7
Sept 2014 - Nov 2014
Sept 2014 - Nov 2014
0.7
2.1
Labour Market Indicators
Reference Data
Employment
Reference Period Level (millions)
Sept 2014 - Nov 2014
30.8
Unemployment
Economic inactivity
Sept 2014 - Nov 2014
Sept 2014 - Nov 2014
1.91
9.09
Reference Period Level (millions) Reference Data
Claimant count
Reference Data
Dec-14
Reference Period
Number unemployed per vacancy Sept 2014 - Nov 2014
0.87
Level
2.8
Forecasts
Reference Data Reference Period
£pw
£483
£494
£481
Quarterly Change
37,000
-58,000
66,000
Monthly Change
-29,700
Quarterly Change
-0.1
Forecast Level
Retail Price Index
Average earnings growth
Fourth quarter 2015
2015
Private sector pay settlement growth Year to Aug 2015
Claimant count
Gross domestic product growth
Fourth quarter 2015
2015
2.0%
2.5%
2.0%
0.8m
2.6%