Cost of living pay rise

jhmm

Hi
If anyone can advise i'd be very gratefull. Does anyone know if by law a company has to give employers a cost of living rise each year and if its a set percentage and also a set month ?

Thank you in advance
Jue xxx

dmg24

Hi Jue,

Welcome to MSE!

Unfortunately, there is no statutory entitlement to a cost of living pay rise. The only exception to this is any rise in minimum wage.

jhmm

thanks for your help and quick response xxx

Savvy_Sue

the only thing I'd add to that is that they can't give some employees a 'cost of living' increase and not others.

they can of course give some employees a performance related payrise and not others, although the mechanism for getting performance related payrises should be transparent rather than random, IYSWIM.

jhmm

Ooooo now i'm a little confused the company i work for is Adams and there staff there have had there payrise but i work for mini mode which is owned by adams but is based in Boots stores, who have also had there pay rise but we've had nothing. We are paid by adams and employed by them although Boots finally pay Adams through the profit share contract they have, so would that mean we still dont necessarily should of had any increase

ceridwen

Hi

Bit confusing situation you are in - sounds like you should have had your cost-of-living rise. Possibly best thing for you to do would be to write (or - more to the point - get your union rep to do so) to your employer and point out that their other staff have had their cost-of-living rise and query whether you have been overlooked because your bit of the firm is based in Boots and then post both your/your union reps letter and the reply from your firm here in the forum so we can see what your employers excuse is as to why you havent had yours. Possibly your/your union reps letter should be along lines of "We note that employees have had x% cost of living rise on y date, but that our cost-of-living rise (as employees based in Boots) has not been received yet and would like to query the reason for this".

LittleVoice

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

the only thing I'd add to that is that they can't give some employees a 'cost of living' increase and not others.

Hi, Sue

Though, on the face of it, it doesn't seem fair not to treat everyone the same, is there any law which doesn't allow an employer to be selective in this way?

LV

dmg24

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

the only thing I'd add to that is that they can't give some employees a 'cost of living' increase and not others.

they can of course give some employees a performance related payrise and not others, although the mechanism for getting performance related payrises should be transparent rather than random, IYSWIM.

They can give different people different rises if the individual's contract is different.

Savvy_Sue

LittleVoice wrote: »

Though, on the face of it, it doesn't seem fair not to treat everyone the same, is there any law which doesn't allow an employer to be selective in this way?

Of course dmg is right: you might have one set of contracts which DO give an automatic cost of living payrise, and others which don't. However a sensible employer will ensure that whatever the contract says it is consistent, ie you don't give an automatic payrise to one person but not the next, then give it to the one after that.

I'm no expert in this area, but the danger of being selective is that you could be accused of discrimination. Wouldn't matter if your selection process was as arbitrary as "everyone who joins us in January can have a cost of living increase every year, those who start in March can't", someone would find that more women / black / gay people change jobs in March each year than in January, and take you to the cleaners.

I suppose it is possible that an employer would agree to an individual contract just to get a particular person who insisted on something: with my experience being out of the private sector I've not been aware of it happening.

cazziebo

jhmm wrote: »

Ooooo now i'm a little confused the company i work for is Adams and there staff there have had there payrise but i work for mini mode which is owned by adams but is based in Boots stores, who have also had there pay rise but we've had nothing. We are paid by adams and employed by them although Boots finally pay Adams through the profit share contract they have, so would that mean we still dont necessarily should of had any increase

From what you are saying, you work for a completely different organisation and will have totally separate terms and conditions. If there is no annual unconditional payrise in your contract then I'm afraid you won't be due one.

dmg24

jhmm wrote: »

Ooooo now i'm a little confused the company i work for is Adams and there staff there have had there payrise but i work for mini mode which is owned by adams but is based in Boots stores, who have also had there pay rise but we've had nothing. We are paid by adams and employed by them although Boots finally pay Adams through the profit share contract they have, so would that mean we still dont necessarily should of had any increase

This is the same as a telecoms company I used to work for. Our employer was the same, but those that worked for 'x' division got a cost of living payrise, and those that worked for 'y' did not. It differed because the divisions were from different merged companies, and had chosen to keep their old contracts (each offered their own perks).

Savvy_Sue is right about the public sector, things do tend to be more standardised there.