Pay in the retail sector has accelerated at a faster rate than the UK overall thanks to a rise in better-paid, high-skill roles, according to new figures.
Retail pay packets grew by 5.7% year on year in 2019, compared with just 4% for the rest of the country, the Office for National Statistics revealed in its latest Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE).
In April 2019, retail hourly pay was £9.30 compared with £13.21 in the UK overall, meaning the sector is catching up with the UK industry average, climbing from 65% in 2014 to 70% in 2019.
Kyle Monk, head of retail insight and analytics at the BRC, said in response to the ASHE that the figures were in line with previous years.
The gender pay gap in retail was broadly in line with last year at 9.5% in favour of males, significantly below the UK gap at 17.3%.
“Retail is in the midst of a transformation,” Monk added. “While the number of the retail jobs has fallen in recent years, there has been a rise in better-paid, high-skill roles such as in digital marketing, AI and data science. This has helped contribute to retail productivity outpacing other industries in recent years.
“It is also encouraging that retail continues to have a substantially lower gender pay gap than other industries. However, more work must be done.”
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