ARA Pay Review Group (PRG) completes its annual review of salary recommendations
The ARA Pay Review Group (PRG) has completed its annual review of salary recommendations and is pleased to announce that on 21st September 2021, the ARA’s Board approved a further increase in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the financial year 2020-2021, which was 0.58% in the UK and 0.4% in Ireland.
The PRG is aware that this increase is extremely modest, but it is consistent with the approach taken in 2019 and 2020. Members may recall that an increase in line with the CPI took place last year despite the unprecedented economic circumstances brought on by the pandemic. The group believes it is worth sticking with a CPI-linked increase for similar reasons, namely:
The salary increase is retrospective, i.e. it is based on the cost of living increase for the financial year running from 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2021.
It is important that any recommended increase is linked to a cost of living measure that is widely accepted and understood by everyone, especially those outside the record-keeping profession.
The rate of inflation has increased considerably in recent months, but these increases may well even out over the course of the current financial year. If they don’t, this will be reflected in next year’s recommendations.
Pearl Quinn, Chair of the ARA’s Pay Review Group, comments: “The ARA’s Pay Review Group continues to record job advertisements in the record-keeping sector at both para-professional and professional level. The exceptional circumstances of the past 18+ months mean that long-term trends are difficult to discern, but it is encouraging that the level of recruitment is increasing as COVID-19 restrictions lift. We recorded advertisements for 54 jobs in the sector in January 2020, a figure that unsurprisingly dropped to 20 in January 2021. Of the 120 jobs recorded in the first six months of 2021 (both professional and para-professional), 80 met the salary recommendations, 47 did not and 43 were unknown. The tendency of many employers to advertise jobs without a salary is notable and is a trend that is unlikely to disappear, which makes the salary recommendations even more valuable as a negotiating tool”.
Click here for full details of the PRG’s revised salary recommendations. Look out for the November/December edition of ARC Magazine which will include a feature from Pearl Quinn highlighting the role of the group’s salary recommendations and providing useful guidance for ARA members on how to approach salary negotiations with employers.
