Hospitality wages rise 53% over the past 10 years

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 full-time hospitality staff have jumped from £328 per week in 2012 to £502 per week in 2022, according to data from accountancy and business services company Hazlewoods.

Over 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 in 2022.

This means that the average hospitality worker gained four times as much from wage inflation as the UK’s average worker over the same period, who saw increases of 4.9% from £696 per week in 2021 to £729 in 2022.

Hospitality operators also experienced record-breaking energy bills and food price inflation during this time.

Hazlewoods explained that part of the wage increases was due to rises in the National Minimum Wage, which also climbed 53% in the last ten years, from £6.19 per hour in 2012 to £9.50 in 2022.

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: “Hospitality workers have seen minimum wage rises and Brexit combine to drive up their wages sharply over the past ten years.

“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.”