Hospitality has seen the highest rate of ten-year wage inflation out of all UK industries, with workers seeing a 53% increase in their salary compared to a decade ago.

Average weekly earnings for hospitality staff have jumped from £328 per week (full time) in 2012 to £502 per week in 2022, according to data from accountancy and business services company Hazlewoods, from analysis of ONS data.

In the past year alone, hospitality employees have received the largest boost in wages of all sectors, as average weekly earnings leapt by 23% from £409 in 2021 to £502 last year.  The average UK worker saw increases of 4.9% from £696 per week in 2021 to £729 in 2022.

In parallel to these rising wages, hospitality operators also experienced record-breaking energy bills and food price inflation during this period.

Hazlewoods explained that part of the wage increases was due to rises in the National Minimum Wage, which has also climbed 53% in the last ten years, from £6.19 per hour in 2012 to £9.50 in 2022.  They believe that staff shortages, compounded by the UK’s new immigration system since Brexit, which demands that overseas workers apply for a Skilled Worker visa, have also pushed up wages.

Rebecca Copping, associate partner at Hazlewoods, said: “Recruiting from what is a now a finite pool of workers in a much more competitive market has mean pay levels have had to increase markedly.

“Higher wages are good news for the staff in the sector but they are putting the industry’s weak margins under even greater pressure.”

The recent release of the ONS Average Weekly Earnings can be found here.