Average wages for hospitality workers rise 53% in a decade

Data from the Office for National Statistics, which has been analysed by accountancy firm Hazelwoods, shows that average weekly earnings for full-time workers in the accommodation and food services category have gone from £328 per week in 2012 to £502 per week in 2022.

Additionally, hospitality workers have also experienced the fastest wage inflation in the past year, with average weekly earnings jumping 23% from £409 in 2021to £502 in 2022.

In general, the average hospitality worker has experienced four times as much wage inflation as the UK’s average worker, who by contrast saw average wages increasing 4.9% from £696 per week in 2021 to £729 in 2022.

Rebecca Copping, associate partner at Hazlewoods, says the increase in wages over the past decade was partly due to rises in the National Minimum Wage. This figure has risen by 53% in the last ten years, from £6.19 per hour in 2012 to £9.50 in 2022.

Wage inflation in the hospitality sector in the past year has also been fuelled by labour shortages, with Brexit restrictions reducing the number of workers coming to the UK from the EU.

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

“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.”