We are currently collecting pay data for the XpertHR core business salary surveys. These cover employees in HR, sales and marketing, finance and general management/admin functions. To find out more about taking part, click here.

I have also posted a piece about what's happening to HR professionals' own pay based on our most recent data on our new XpertHR Pay Intelligence blog. This blog is still in development, but if you would like a sneak pre-launch preview, click here.

A tribunal in Northern Ireland has awarded £45,000 to a woman whose employer pretended that she was working part time while she was pregnant so that it didn't have to pay statutory maternity pay to her.

Inflation is high, the prospects for the economy are uncertain and the impact of huge public spending cuts to come is unknown.

The latest data from XpertHR reveals that the median pay award was 1% in the three months to July 2010, but there are signs that pay awards may start to rise in value, with the proportion of pay freezes falling.

In this complex environment, how are you going to help your organisation decide what to pay employees in 2011?

We use a consistent methodology to collect, verify and analyse company data. All data for any given survey is typically provided by an organisation's HR department who will provide demographic, pay and benefits data for each employee.

Full Time Equivalent (FTE) salaries are provided for part time employees to ensure that part time salaries do not distort the overall results. Data is collected as accurate on a given date, to ensure that pay data is consistent from one participant to the next, and to allow year-on-year trends.

A group of factory workers who have to clock off and have deductions made from their pay every time they go to the toilet are taking their employer to an employment tribunal, according to the Daily Mail website.

A round-up of links to news items on recent employment tribunal rulings, including: a police officer who was forced out after blowing the whistle on a colleague; an investment banker who is seeking £13.5 million after successfully claiming sex discrimination; and an Israeli lecturer who claimed religious discrimination after she converted to Christianity.

New figures derived from XpertHR salary surveys data suggest that UK businesses are still more than five decades away from paying men and women equally. What follows is based on the press release we and the Chartered Management Institute issued today.

A detailed analysis of data from the XpertHR National Management Salary Survey carried out by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), which has been associated with the report since its launch in the early 1970s, reveals that women's salaries increased by 2.8 per cent over the past 12 months, compared to 2.3 per cent for men.

Besides the mixed picture on unemployment, the monthly labour market statistics released yesterday (PDF format, 327.8k) show that average earnings growth has slowed, with the headline rate at half that of the previous month's figure.

Average weekly earnings growth (including bonuses) for the whole economy was 1.3% in the year to June 2010, compared to 2.7% in the 12 months to May.

To some extent, this represents the annual bonus round - which usually bolsters total pay growth in the first quarter of the year - falling out of the earnings figures. The slowdown was certainly most pronounced in the private sector, with total earnings growth slowing to 0.8% in the 12 months to June from 2.9% the year to May, compared with a fall from 1.6% to 1.4% in the public sector.

A report out today from the Audit Commission (PDF format 1.15Mb, external website) looks at ways to reform the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

It's quite a technical report on the funding issues, but worth a look as a preview of the issues that are likely to appear in the interim report of John Hutton's Public Service Pensions Commission which is expected next month (final report by Budget 2011).

Pay awards in both the private and public sectors remain low despite high headline inflation, according to the latest research from IRS published exclusively on XpertHR (subscription required).

Our provisional analysis shows that pay awards were worth a median 1% in the three months to the end of July 2010 - four whole percentage points below the cost of living as measured by Retail Prices Index (RPI), which was 5% in June.

A report is out today (PDF format 762K, external website) from the Public Sector Pensions Commission, which was set up in 2009 by the Institute of Economic Affairs, the Institute of Directors and others. You can read the press release on their website here.

A round-up of links to news items on recent employment tribunal rulings, including: compensation for a Protestant teacher who was made redundant in Northern Ireland; a payout for a property lettings agent who claimed that her boss asked her to lie in court; and an unsuccessful unfair dismissal claim by a postal worker who took time off work to grieve after the death of her pet dog.

Are we likely to see the headline whole-economy pay award fall back to the record low of zero over the coming months?

The headline whole-economy pay award shows no signs of budging from 1% (subscription required) over the three months to 31 May 2010, according to latest pay trends data from IRS for XpertHR. But the gap between pay and inflation remains wide, while pay freezes are still common.

Latest pay trends data from IRS for XpertHR suggest that a slowdown in public sector pay awards is getting underway (external website) in 2010.

The trailer has been launched for a new British film based on the true story of a group of female machinists in a Dagenham car plant who protested for equal pay in 1968.

Today the Government published a list of "most" senior civil servants paid more than £150,000 a year (Excel format 19.9K, on the Cabinet Office website), as part of a drive which it says is intended to improve transparency, increase accountability and deliver better value for money. The list gives an "annual pay rate" for each person which includes taxable benefits and allowances.

The precarious economic situation means that Chancellor George Osborne's emergency budget will be very closely watched when it is delivered later this month (on Tuesday 22 June 2010). But beyond the likely headline-grabbing measures relating to public spending cuts and other actions geared toward tackling the budget deficit and shoring up economic recovery, there will be a host of other interesting aspects to the emergency budget. Not least among which is the fact that this is the first time that a Conservative Chancellor has had the opportunity to determine policy on the national minimum wage since its introduction in 1999. So what might Osborne's emergency budget have in store for the national minimum wage?

The coalition government has now published its "programme for government" (PDF format, 475Kb on the Cabinet Office website) and Personnel Today has already pulled out the key implications for HR.

The document suggests that the coalition is happy to pick specific fights with some major public sector employee groups in seeking to cut spending.

Prime minister Gordon Brown has stated that if the Labour party wins the 2010 general election, the national minimum wage "will reach £7 [per hour] on reasonable assumptions by the end of the Parliament" (external website). This was part of Brown's speech to Citizens UK yesterday (Sunday 3 May 2010), in which he also reaffirmed Labour's manifesto commitment to ask government departments to "follow the lead of those who already pay the Living Wage" within their existing budgets (the London living wage is currently set at £7.60 per hour). But it is worth taking a closer look at these comments.

A round up of links to news items on recent employment tribunal rulings, including: a huge equal pay win for council workers in Birmingham; the unfair dismissal of a receptionist who allegedly made her boss look stupid on Facebook; and an employment tribunal victory for fixed-term university staff.

The latest election analysis from the Centre For Economic Performance covers bankers' bonuses (on the CEP website, PDF format 72Kb), as part of the series of that was launched a couple of weeks ago.

With pay freezes remaining an all-too-common feature of the reward landscape in 2010, benefits and allowances represent an excellent way for cash-strapped employers to differentiate their reward offerings. Taking part in our 2010 benefits and allowances benchmarking survey will provide you with the chance to see how your benefits and allowances package compares with those of your competitors.

In their 2010 general election manifesto (external website), the Liberal Democrats pledge to:

• Set a £400 pay rise cap for all public sector workers, initially for two years (presumably from 2011, as many 2010 pay awards have already been agreed?);
• Introduce fair pay audits to combat pay discrimination for all firms with over 100 employees (note that the policy is for fair pay audits, broader than gender pay audits);

In its 2010 general election manifesto (external website), the Conservative Party says that if elected, it would:

• Require national and local public bodies to publish the salaries and expenses of senior officials paid more than the lowest salary permissible in Pay Band 1 of the Senior Civil Service pay scale (this is currently £58,200 a year);
• Implement a public sector pay freeze for one year in 2011, excluding the one million lowest-paid workers;

Building on Michael Carty's post on the minimum wage, I've been looking at the major parties' manifesto promises on pay and pensions. There are a lot of them, so I'll cover Labour here and post separately on the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

As Duncan Brown writes on the Public Finance blog, a focus on driving down the cost of public sector pay and pensions was to be expected in the manifestos (external website). "What is much  more of a surprise is the way in which pay is, secondly, being used to reinforce a core theme in all the major parties' manifestos, which is fairness and transparency," he says.

The main political parties have now published their manifestos for the 2010 general election (which takes place in less than one month's time, on Thursday 6 May 2010). Here we round up their promises on the national minimum wage.

• A free copy of the 2010 benefits and allowances report published by IRS;

• Free access to last year's four benefits and allowances reports;
  

• Entry into a prize draw with a chance to win one of five £25 M&S vouchers; and
  

• The special participant rate of £520 for access to detailed metrics across all key benefits and allowances, including breakdowns by seniority, locality, industry and more from XpertHR salary surveys, powered by CELRE (non participant price £1,040).

• Medical insurance;
• Permanent health insurance;
  
• Car allowances;
• Mileage rates;
  
• Subsistence allowances; and,
  
• Pensions.

A district mayor in Tokyo has become the first local government leader in Japan to take paternity leave, reports the BBC website.

What issues do line managers deal with on a daily basis? We’ve gathered data to come up with our 10 most popular line manager briefings since January 2009 (which might go some way to providing the answer).

With Budget 2010 just a few days away, there has been both good and bad news for the Chancellor this week.

On Wednesday, the labour market figures revealed a significant drop in unemployment and the claimant count, leading some experts to comment that unemployment may now have peaked (on the Independent website). The Centre for Economic and Social exclusion has put all the figures into easy-to-read charts on their website.

A round up of links to news items on recent employment tribunal rulings, including: an unsuccessful age discrimination claim by a TV journalist; the first decision on trade union blacklisting; and an award for a chip shop worker who was dismissed for giving away chips.

Whether you are an employer, employee or doctor, now is a good time to get familiar with the layout of the new fit note, which replaces the traditional sick note from 6 April 2010. A new entry on the statement of fitness for work [subscription required] in the XpertHR policies and documents section brings together the Government's sample version, official guidance for employers and doctors, and an overview of the law relating to the new fit note.

Despite the public sector pay freezes announced yesterday (see the coverage in the Guardian, Telegraph and Financial Times, plus the reactions from the First Division Association and the British Medical Association, all on external websites) many public sector employees will still be getting a pay rise in 2010.

The Government has announced the national minimum wage rate for 2010/2011 (external website). With effect from 1 October 2010, the national minimum wage adult rate will rise from its current level of £5.80 per hour to £5.93 per hour, an increase of 2.2%. As previously announced, the adult rate of the national minimum wage will be extended to 21 year-old workers from October 2010 (subscription required) (it is currently paid to workers aged 22 and over).

As well as announcing the date of the 2010 Budget, the Prime Minister also made some announcements on public sector pay this morning.

In his speech on the economy, he confirmed that there would be no pay rises for senior civil servants, the senior military, the judiciary, senior NHS managers, consultants, GPs or dentists from April 2010.

All these groups have their pay rates recommended by public sector review bodies, which published reports today setting out their proposals. Reports on pay in the prison service and armed forces have also been published.

You can find a statement confirming which proposals the government has accepted or rejected on the Number 10 website.

As the Prime Minister had already pre-announced that these groups were going to have their pay frozen (see our round-up of public sector pay on XpertHR - subscription required), it was quite brave of the senior salaries review body to recommend that senior NHS managers earning less than £80,000 should get a 2.25% pay rise, which the government rejected. 

The Prime Minister also confirmed that government ministers would not be seeing ministerial pay rise in 2010-11 nor would they be taking up the 1.5% pay increase for all MPs from April 2010 that was announced last week.

On 6 April 2010, the new statement of fitness for work, or "fit note" comes into effect. Doctors will be able to advise that an employee "may be fit for work taking account of the following advice" and suggest arrangements that could help the employee return to work. The fit note is intended to give employers and employees greater flexibility in managing sickness absence and result in fewer employees being signed off work when they could do some work with appropriate support.

The willingness of UK workers to accept severe pay restraint - in many cases involving pay freezes - has helped many employers minimise job cuts and weather the worst of the 2008/2009 recession. However, with tentative economic recovery now underway and inflation soaring, it remains to be seen if UK workers and trade unions will tolerate a second successive year of pay restraint.

XpertHR's salary survey unit will shortly be sending participation packs for the Computer Staff Salary Survey to organisations which have previously taken part in this long-running research.

Find out more about participating in the Computer Staff Salary Survey or call us on 020 8652 2159.

Pay freezes look as if they're here to stay in 2010. Around three-fifths (57%) of UK workers do not expect to receive a pay increase in 2010 (external website), according to a YouGov survey commissioned by uSwitch, the BBC reports.

• UPDATE: National minimum wage 2010/2011: 2.2% increase to £5.93 per hour announced for October 2010

The National Management Salary Survey is one of the largest pay surveys conducted by XpertHR through its Celre salary survey arm. The 2010 report is being launched today jointly with the Chartered Management Institute.

There is more about the headline findings in our Celre blog, and my colleague Michael Carty has also written about it. Data will also be found in the XpertHR Job Pricing tool in due course once further checking and number crunching has been carried out. This will be live very soon now.

As well as a collapse in the headline pay award back to the record low of zero, latest data from reward specialists at IRS suggest a change in the way the national minimum wage influences the headline pay settlement.

Reward has taken something of a beating during the recession, with pay freezes becoming the norm for many UK workers during 2009. But there could be a further, hidden casualty among our most valued workplace perks, with potentially serious implications for morale: the free office cuppa.

The prognosis for pay awards across the UK economy in 2010 and beyond is less than rosy (PDF format, 47K) (external website), according to Bank of England governor Mervyn King.

Supporting women who are due to go on maternity leave, and those who are returning from maternity leave, can help employers retain experienced and dedicated employees and ensure that they are working to their full potential. There can be a number of significant benefits to business, including saving on recruitment and training costs and ensuring productivity levels are at their peak. However, knowing what practical support to give pregnant women or new mothers can be difficult. That’s why at XpertHR we’ve commissioned a good practice guide on maternity from Liz Morris of Mayfield Associates.

Many public sector workers already face low pay increases or pay freezes in 2010. Now, in an interview with the Sunday Times, Chancellor Alistair Darling has indicated that public sector pay will be subject to "restructuring" (external website), which could result in pay cuts for some jobs.

Pay awards staged a slight recovery in the closing months of 2009 (subscription required), with the headline award standing at 1.2% over the three months to 31 December 2009, according to latest data from reward specialists at IRS. But the pay outlook is uncertain: pay awards could either stage a further weak recovery in 2010, or slump back toward their recent all-time low of zero.

"[W]hile the government is rightly devoting taxpayers' money to helping Britain's one million jobless young people, it would be absurd at the same time to raise the youth minimum wage," according to CIPD chief economic advisor John Philpott. His comments coincide with the publication of a joint letter to Peter Mandelson - penned by the CIPD in partnership with the BCC (external website) - in which they call for a freeze on "further statutory increases in the cost of employing staff during what looks like being a 'jobs-light' recovery".

• UPDATE: National minimum wage 2010/2011: 2.2% increase to £5.93 per hour announced for October 2010

Retail prices index (RPI) inflation is long established as a key factor influencing private sector pay awards. But with pay awards subdued at present, and inflation set to prove volatile over the coming months, could 2010 prove to be the year in which RPI and pay awards come uncoupled?

Do you need to know about employment law in France? The latest European employment law guide added to XpertHR looks at key elements of employment law in Frances as it applies to: recruitment and selection; pay and benefits; employee rights; contracts of employment; training and development; equal opportunities; industrial relations; health and safety; and termination of employment.

XpertHR regularly publishes information on industrial relations law and practice across Europe - providing expert analysis of developments at European level and in individual European countries. In addition, other guides to national employment law in European countries include: the Netherlands; Italy; Germany; Greece; Poland; and Ireland. For ease of reference, we’ve rounded our European information up on one European employment law and practice page.

Remember that we want to provide information on the countries that are relevant to you in your HR role - so let us know which countries you’d like to see guidance on in the future.

Snow chaos across the UK means many employees can't get to work, through no fault of their own, because travel is not possible and/or schools are closed. Many believe they are entitled to be paid as usual in these circumstances - and are unhappy when they find otherwise.

A blog post of mine on snow, pay and employment rights from last February has seen a flurry of comments in the past few days, so I thought it would be worth returning to the issue today.

A round up of links to recent employment tribunal rulings, including the reinstatement of a Territorial army soldier who was made redundant after he returned from Afghanistan, a successful claim by a park ranger who was dismissed for making a joke about the colour of a black colleague's legs, and an award to a woman whose husband did the same job for the same employer but was paid more than her.

The national minimum wage rates paid to workers aged under 21 should be frozen at their current level (PDF format, 1.5MB) (external website) when the 2010/2011 national minimum wage uprating comes into effect on 1 October 2010, according to the CIPD. The CIPD argues that freezing the statutory pay floor for younger workers would help "ensure welcome government efforts to combat soaring youth unemployment are not fatally undermined just as the economy is beginning to recover".

Six months ago, I noted that pay was taking the brunt of the current recession: given the scale of the economic downturn, the rise in unemployment was surprisingly low, with pay awards absorbing a lot of the shock. Now, as 2010 gets into full swing, an increasing number of commentators argue that pay will continue to take the strain this year.

Want to receive the answer to a frequently asked HR question every day? If you’re on Twitter, you can do so by following HRdailyquestion. The questions come from the popular XpertHR FAQs section, which contains over 1,000 frequently asked HR questions - and more importantly the answers.

With snow across much of country once again, your organisation may be affected, with employees perhaps unable to get to work because of transport problems. Take into account the need to be flexible and make sure line managers use their common sense when dealing with the issues that arise. Guidance and a model policy on severe weather conditions and their impact on the workplace are available on XpertHR:

• Severe weather and disruptions to public transport policy
• Dealing with employment issues caused by severe weather or disruptions to public transport - a guide [subscription required for both]

The Department for Work and Pensions has published some of the key employment-related statutory rates for April 2010, including statutory maternity pay (SMP), statutory adoption pay (SAP), statutory paternity pay (SPP) and statutory sick pay (SSP).

With the busiest months of the pay setting calendar now upon us, employers can turn to some bang up-to-date salary data from CELRE, published exclusively on XpertHR Job Pricing, to inform their decisions.

Annual reports published in the final few weeks of 2009 as part of CELRE's core business survey cover staff working in HR and personnel, finance and accounts, and sales and marketing roles.

There is also fresh data for engineers and technicians, and for the distribution and media industries.

Around 50 new model policies and documents have been added to XpertHR in 2009. But what have been the most popular? The XpertHR employment intelligence blog provides a round-up.

Here's a useful list of reactions to the Pre-Budget Report from unions and employers on ePolitix, plus a "wordle" from the guardian which heavily features the word "tax".

The TUC's Nigel Stanley has done a useful summary of the pensions proposals in the PBR, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies has just released its initial reactions, which are always worth reading.

 The reactions are coming in to the Chancellor's widely trailed proposal for a one-off tax on bonuses in the banking sector. Unsurprisingly the CBI warns that the "threat of an exodus of talent is real" while the TUC describes Darling's proposal as "at the modest end of what he could have done". Bankers have "no divine right to giant bonuses every year," says TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber.

But how will the tax actually work and are there any loopholes?

As usual, 2009 was a busy year in the employment tribunals, courts and in the European Court of Justice. But what employment law cases can we look forward to in the next 12 months? Here are 10 significant employment decisions expected in 2010.

After spending much of 2009 in negative territory, retail prices index (RPI) inflation has risen sharply, climbing out of the red and back into the black to see out the calendar year.