The fastest-rising wages in the UK over the past decade have been in the hospitality sector, with average weekly earnings for full-time workers rising 53% from £328 per week in 2012 to £502 per week in 2022, says Hazlewoods, Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers. In the past year hospitality workers have also experienced the fastest wage inflation, with average weekly earnings jumping 23% from £409 in 2021to £502 in 2022.
Rebecca Copping, Associate Partner at Hazlewoods, says the increase in wages over the past decade is partly due to rises in the National Minimum Wage. This figure has risen by 53% in the last ten years, from £6.19 per hour in 2012 to £9.50 in 2022.
Wage inflation in the hospitality sector in the past year has also been fuelled by labour shortages, with Brexit restrictions reducing the number of workers coming to the UK from the EU. Under the UK’s new immigration system, overseas workers must apply for a Skilled Worker visa. However, relatively few jobs in hospitality meet the skill and salary criteria required.
As a result of these shortages, employers have been forced to increase wages to attract British and Irish nationals to these positions.
Rebecca Copping says: “Hospitality workers have seen minimum wage rises and Brexit combine to drive up their wages sharply over the past ten years. Recruiting from what is a now a finite pool of workers in a much more competitive market has mean pay levels have had to increase markedly. Higher wages are good news for the staff in the sector but they are putting the industry’s weak margins under even greater pressure.”