According to the Financial Times survey, only 1/10 out of 1000 companies large and small said to increase wages by 5% for their employees because of inflation, so the remaining 9 are almost zero, instead a series of Policies such as benefits are put in place to retain employees during the time of price escalation.
More than 10% is the increase in inflation in September 2022 compared to 2021, the pressure is on households and workers, and for companies, that pressure comes from salary costs and other factors. Due to the high cost of the crisis, the current headache is to find every way to increase wages to match the costs employees have to face the coming winter such as soaring prices of necessities and energy. Especially in Europe when the situation of gas and fuel is a stressful issue.
For example, PwC, when offering a solution, will provide a special support of between £1,000 and £1,500 over the next five months to help cover living costs for employees earning less than £50,000 a year. The support will go to about half of the company’s staff, and anyone with a salary below £40,000 will receive the full amount.
As for Deloitte, it said employees can choose to receive extra cash in lieu of the company’s annual bonus into their pension.
Other companies such as Amazon, Aviva, Grainger, John Lewis, Barratt & Taylor Wimpey, and banks such as Nationwide and Co-operative choose to offer one-time grants of 300 to 1,000 EUR. Virgin Media O2 will give away £1,400 to employees earning less than £35,000.
Some other companies instead of cash they choose to offer vouchers or travel. John Lewis said it will provide free food to all workers until January 6, 2023. And Aviva has abolished parking fees for its employees.
However, according to experts, these are only temporary solutions to the current prolonged inflation situation. “Employers are coming up with innovative ways to mitigate the impact of the current market,” said Anthony Painter, policy director at CMI.
“Welfare is the right thing to do and we know many of our customers are doing the same,” said Kevin Ellis, President of PwC UK.
For the difficult situation that is forecasted to continue, clearer and more specific policies for employees are needed to avoid a possible global personnel crisis.