Travel agents lead pay rise league despite cost of living squeeze

Travel agents recorded the biggest rise in pay last year, up 21% in a year, official data shows, with public relations directors and publicans next on the list.

Sports coaches saw the largest fall and, overall, UK workers saw earnings fail to keep pace with rising prices.

The average full-time worker’s annual wage was nearly £35,000 in April 2023, a rise of 5.8% on the previous year.

But the cost of living grew faster than wages over the same period.

That ate into workers’ spending power.

Jobs, like travel agents and publicans, fared better than average, but that was likely to be part of a rebound after these roles were hit hard during Covid.

Their typical annual earnings were also still below the national average of all occupations.

Sean Tipton, from the travel agents trade body ABTA, said: “During the pandemic, the travel industry was by far the worst affected. Business fell through the floor. Over 100,000 people left the travel sector.”

When demand from holidaymakers surged back, there was a shortage of workers in the industry, so companies offered higher wages, he said. Higher numbers of bookings meant they had the funds to increase pay.

BBC News analysed the latest earnings figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to see which professions have managed to beat rising inflation rates, and which have not.

Travel agents had the biggest pay rises, with the average wage going up by more than a fifth to around £29,600, but still below the national average of £35,000.

Public relations directors, publicans and directors have had pay bumps of more than 15% as well.

On the other hand, some jobs fared worse. Delivery operatives, interior designers and tax agents have had substantial pay cuts, even before accounting for inflation.

While these figures are less timely than the most up-to-date pay figures released by the ONS, they provide a more granular view of the labour market.

The average full-time worker in the UK was earning £34,963 in the year to March 2023, about £1,900 or 5.8% more than the previous year. The increase in hourly wages was the biggest since comparable records began in 1997 – but unlikely to be higher than during some earlier periods during, for example, the 1970s.

But the inflation figure, or the rate at which the cost of goods and services has increased, for the year April to April, was even higher at 7.8%.

This means that in real terms, wages fell by 1.9% for full-time workers, a sign of the continued cost of living squeeze.

These numbers will not reflect the easing of inflation and further wage rises since April, for which detailed data is not yet available. According to more recent figures from the ONS, pay has already overtaken inflation in June to August 2023.

The gender pay gap, which charts the hourly earnings of men and women, has barely changed in all major sectors between 2022 and 2023, although it has improved over time.

Over the last decade, the gender pay gap has fallen by about a quarter, reaching 7.7% for full-time workers by April 2023. However, it remains disproportionately high for workers aged 40 or over at 10.3%.

Wednesday’s figures also reveal that the proportion of low-wage earners, that is, people who earn below two-thirds of the average hourly earnings, is the lowest since comparable records began in 1997.

Additional reporting by Liana Bravo, Libby Rogers, Callum Thomson and Rob England.