Construction workers no longer have highest wage increases as average wage rise remains at 3.5%.
Construction workers have been knocked off the top of the UK鈥檚 pay rise league table for the first time in five years, a survey has revealed.
The sector鈥檚 3.5% average pay increase in 2004/5 - the same percentage as the previous year - was beaten into third place by the 3.75% increase enjoyed by workers in the finance and transport and communications industries.
However the pay rises of the UK鈥檚 construction workers are still above the 3% average rise for the rest of the economy, according to the annual survey by pay specialists Industrial Relations Services.
The survey, covering the period from 1 September 2004 to 31 April 2005, found that the lowest quarter of pay increases were around 3% while the highest quarter about 4.5%.
It said that many of the rises were based on industry-wide pay deals, such as the 2005 stage of the construction industry Joint Industry Council deal for general, skilled and craft workers which saw minimum rates rise by 9.5% and the deal for the engineering construction industry which put up pay for unskilled, semi skilled and craft workers by 4.5%.
A spokesman for the Construction Confederation said skills shortages and a buoyant construction market had driven pay increases over several years but increases could be starting to flatten. He said: 鈥淗istorically it needed to catch up and it has probably done that now.鈥� He said there were signs that the market was beginning to slow which could also put the brakes on wage rises.
