FOCUS: How much are islanders earning?

Saturday 27 August 2022

Islanders have seen their largest drop in real-terms pay in 10 years.

Although employees' average weekly earnings went up by more than 6% in the past year, taking into account the cost of living, this was actually a 1.6% drop in real terms.

Real terms changes

Pictured: Average earnings across all sectors in June 2022 were 1.6% lower than in June 2021, the largest drop in a decade.

The drop in real-terms earnings from June 2021 was worse among those employed by Government.

They saw their pay drop 4.4% compared to last year, which is the largest fall in public sector pay since June 2002.

Average wages by sector

The figures are part of a new report by Statistics Jersey, which also reveals the mean average weekly earnings per full-time equivalent (FTE) employee.

In June 2022, this figure was of £860, equating to £44,720 across the year.

In hotels, restaurants and bars, average earnings were £550 per week, equivalent to £28,600 per year.

Meanwhile, an average financial services worker was earning £1,170 per week, meaning a yearly salary of £60,840,

Minimum wage levels

The proportion of the workforce on low pay was 4%.

Agriculture and hospitality remain the sectors with the highest number of employees earning near the minimum wage, with 25% and 16% of their workers respectively, although that proportion has reduced since 2019.

Meanwhile, manufacturing, energy companies, transport, storage and communication as well as financial and legal activities have less than 1% of employees on low pay.

Pictured: 4% of the 54,000-strong workforce in Jersey are on or near the minimum wage.

This is the fourth time in five years that earnings have decreased in real terms.

Pay increases

However, when looking at the real-terms change in earnings over the last decade, all-sector average earnings have increased by 0.8%.

Over the last 12 months, average earnings increased by 6.2% across all sectors, this is the highest increase since June 2001 as well as higher than the preceding five-year annual average of 2.6% per year, and the long-term annual average of 4.0% per year since 1990.

Agriculture saw the highest annual increase with 21.1%. In their report, Statistics Jersey said this increase follows a fall in average earnings in the prior two years, and a 10.8% increase in the minimum wage on 1 January 2022.

Pictured: Agriculture saw the highest annual increase with 21.1% among local sectors.

For the other private sector industries, annual increases in earnings ranged between 3.0% for manufacturing and 11.9% for hotel, restaurants and bars. The latter was partially attributed to an increase in the minimum wage of 10.8% and some companies awarding substantial pay increases to staff.

Pay increases also led to a 9.4% jump in the wholesale and retail sector and of 9.1% in the “other businesses” sector, which includes a wide range of businesses such as care homes, cleaning companies, private education and leisure services.