The Pay Rise You Can’t Give – retaining and motivating people when the budget won’t stretch

Every year the wage floor rises, and employers ask the same questions: can we afford it, and are we compliant? Far fewer ask what it does to the shape of their pay structure, and that’s where the real risk lies.

As statutory pay floors rise faster than the rungs above them, the gap between new starters and experienced staff narrows. Experience and loyalty stop being reflected in pay. You stay fully compliant, but your most capable people quietly conclude that staying and getting good no longer pays. That’s pay compression, and it’s the hidden cost of ‘good enough’.

Join our live panel to understand the risk, see how your organisation compares, and leave with practical steps to get ahead of it.

What you’ll learn:

•     Where pay compression shows up first, and why most leaders miss it until it’s costly

•     How compression erodes engagement, fairness and retention in your most valuable people

•     How to protect progression with development and clear career paths when pay is constrained

•     How to turn your own HR and pay data into an early-warning system

•     How payroll teams can shift from processing to strategic insight on pay

•     How to get ahead of the next wage rises, rather than reacting each spring

Why does it matter now?

Median pay in low-paying industries is now just 14% above the National Living Wage, and has been stuck at £1.71 above it in cash terms for two years. The squeeze isn’t confined to the lowest paid, either: wage-floor pressure now reaches a third of the way up the pay scale, and the floor is projected to keep climbing. (Sources: Low Pay Commission, GOV.UK.)

What we’ll cover:

•     The rising floor: what’s happening to pay, and why it’s a hidden risk, not just a cost

•     The hidden compression: how differentials are narrowing, often out of sight

•     The human cost: what it does to engagement, fairness and your experienced ‘middle’

•     Progression under pressure: keeping people growing when pay can’t move

•     The data opportunity: seeing and modelling the risk before it costs you people

•     What good looks like: practical first steps and the year ahead

Register now! Can’t make it live? Register anyway and we’ll send you the recording to watch whenever suits.

Speakers:

1. Lizzy Barry, HR Director, IRIS Software Group
2. Daniel Grace, Director of International HR Consulting, IRIS Software Group
3. Louise Anderson, Senior Learning & Development Advisor, IRIS Software Group