Hospitality salaries rise above the UK average to attract more candidates
According to findings from UK job website CV-Library, advertised salaries in the hospitality industry have increased by 6.5% since last month.
The data, which looked at pay, job and application fluctuations throughout February, saw that overall the UK saw an increase in advertised salaries of just 0.5%, but some industries, with hospitality at the top, saw above average salary growth when compared to data from January.
The hospitality sector saw a rise in advertised salaries of 6.5%, compared to 1.3% for manufacturing and just 0.5% for catering. It also saw a rise of 6.4% in the hospitality sector when comparing year-on-year data.
As the industry continues to struggle with impending skills shortages, it is likely that employers are raising their salaries to attract more workers.
Last month, Big Hospitality spoke to Frank Yeung, owner of Mr Bao and Daddy Bao, who said that staffing would be one of the biggest problems for his businesses once Brexit comes into effect because “the pool of people will reduce, and it will be harder to find staff.”
In order to attract more staff, Yeung is using pay as an incentive.
“A lot of places pay minimum wage, whereas we pay above that, and you get to keep all your tips,” he told BigHospitality.
“Some of the kids working are 18, and they’re earning double what their mates do. We’re really proud of that and want to get that message out so more people will apply to work for us.”
Job vacancies were up in the hospitality industry last month, rising by 12.9%, although the research did see month-on-month decline in both advertised vacancies (5.3%) and applications (22.5%) which CV Library managing director Lee Biggins says is to be expected.
“It’s clear that businesses in the sector are trying to keep the momentum going following the typical January hiring rush and that they’re working hard to keep attracting talented candidates to their vacancies,” says Biggins.
“We typically see jobs and applications soar in January with both employers and job hunters starting the year on a high. As such, we expected to see these numbers decline slightly throughout February.”
