Two thirds of hospitality firms to increase wages in 2014

By Gemma McKenna

Published: 27 January, 2014

Seven out of 10 hospitality and leisure businesses are planning to increase wages with more looking to recruit additional senior executives this year.

The Barclays Employers' Survey 2014, which questioned 684 UK businesses across all sectors, shows that 69% of hospitality and leisure companies will increase wages.

Despite inflation and rising living costs, just over half (51%)of businesses in this sector said wage pressure from employees was not an issue, while 24% said it was a concern to some extent and 25% said it was a major concern.

Almost half of the firms said they are planning to hire more staff (47%) with 27% indicating they are looking to boost their senior management teams, up from 20% in 2013. Barclays says this "indicated an interest to hire top talent to drive strategy". A slight drop in the number of employers looking to recruit at middle/junior management/skilled levels was reported, 73% (2013:76%), and also in the number looking to increase jobs at the low and unskilled workers level, 66%, down from 83% last year.

Mike Saul, head of hospitality & leisure at Barclays, said: "As confidence returns, it is encouraging to see that the majority of businesses in the Hospitality & Leisure sector are looking to increase wages in the coming year which demonstrates optimism within the industry. However, whilst wage rises are no doubt welcome news to employees, they will increase inflationary pressure as the year progresses."

Other key findings for hospitality and leisure include:

16% of businesses have taken on apprentices over the past year and 31% are looking to take on apprentices in 2014.

27% are likely to hire freelancers/contractors in the next 12 months with the main reason being that they are more flexible, 65%, as well as for the reason that it is cheaper, 13%.