By Patrick Avenell

Employees in the retail sector would be wise not spend their Christmas bonus in one hit after Aon Hewitt predicted only a 3.7 per cent average increase in 2013 — the lowest in the industries they survey.

Aon Hewitt, which describes itself as “the global leader in human capital consulting”, predicts a 4.2 per cent average increase across all industries in 2013. The largest increase is expected to be in the energy, power and gas sector, where a 6 per cent bump is forecast.

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We asked Aon Hewitt why retail employees should expect less than other industries:

“While the retail sector has seen growth in household consumption and therefore increased sales volumes, the value of sales was still modest due to discounting,” said Rachael Finnemore, Head of Reward Products at Aon Hewitt.

“This, coupled with relatively weak consumer sentiment, is leading to lower forecast spending in salaries across retailers.”

Aon Hewitt’s executive summary of salaries for the industry is as follows:

  • Employees in the retail sector can expect to receive the lowest salary increases in 2013, averaging 3.7 per cent.
  • This is down from projections for salary increases for 2012 in last year’s report of 4.4 per cent for the retail sector.
  • And is in contrast to predicted average salary increases in 2013 of 4.2 per cent for Australians, and the highest average increases of 6 per cent for the energy, power and gas sector.