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“A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work”. This was the old union demand, but in an era when the union’s powers have been watered down, is this still reflective of the print industry?

Recent statistics suggest that it is. Salary figures produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) last year showed that only one of the print occupations covered by the research came below half way, out of the 500 occupations listed. Then, last month, the BPIF unveiled the findings of its annual salary survey. It showed that average salaries for all of the firms that took part increased by 4% between 2005 and 2006, with the top three highest paid regions being London, the North West and the South East – Scotland remains the poorest paid area.

While the results made impressive reading, according to the report’s author, BPIF information services manager Kyle Jardine, establishing the health of wages in print, compared with rates of pay in general manufacturing, is tricky.

“Accurate comparisons are difficult to make, not just because of the confidential nature of the data, but also in ensuring that like is being compared with like when comparing data from various sources,” says Jardine.

He refers back to the ONS data that shows that the median annual pay for full-time employees in the print industry of £24,035 is greater than the “all manufacturing” and “national all” equivalents (£23,636 and £23,580 respectively) although he clarifies that the data does not distinguish between the managerial and production employees within each sector.

Big firms, big bucks
According to Jardine, in terms of monetary rewards, you’re better off working for a larger print firm, with firms recording a turnover of under £2m paying an average of £30,106 and those boasting turnovers over £10m paying £47,359.

“This is a common characteristic,” says Jardine, “reflecting not only the offer of higher salaries by larger companies in an attempt to entice better-qualified employees, but also reparation for greater responsibility.”

However, he points out that the majority of the industry is made up of smaller companies and they attract employees due to the greater flexibility and community spirit they offer.

Unsurprisingly, the largest increases in total salary were experienced by print supervisors and senior estimators, followed by pre-press supervisors, personnel/training directors and company secretaries. But some did witness a fall, with warehouse/transport supervisors, sales office managers, accountants, and sales directors worst hit.

Despite the slump there is still a divide between sales and production, with sales directors earning at least £6,000 to £8,000 more than their production counterparts.

“There is certainly less security within sales and typically they have shorter tenure than their operations counterparts,” explains Mercury Search and Selection director Dani Novick.

Novick expresses disappointment that the report showed that performance related pay is favoured by so few companies (just 4.3% compared with 7% in 2003). “I don’t believe ‘umbrella bonuses’ [bonuses that aren’t linked to personal performance] are the answer. In a market where competitive pressures are only going to increase, everyone should be accountable and rewarded based on their performance.”

Another area of concern is what impact – if any – the influx of Eastern European workers has had on the print industry. According to Novick, there is no evidence of wages being pushed down by immigrants. “Many of them are happy to accept wages at the lower end of the going rate. However, often they are filling vacancies where there are skill shortages and therefore any deflationary pressure is countered.”

While it appears wages are in line with other industries that doesn’t mean that there’s not room for improvement. “We are falling behind other sectors and we have witnessed some of our members leaving to go to higher-paid industries,” says Amicus assistant general secretary Tony Burke.

Training and development
Jardine agrees that the offer of higher wages would help to attract more interest in printing vacancies, “but financial remuneration is not the only factor. Employers need to pay attention to training and development.”

And therein lies the rub. With the high average age of the industry increasing and a lingering reluctance to invest in training from some quarters, this will have a greater impact on recruitment and retention in the future than poor pay levels, according to Novick. “Too many are unwilling to train and are looking for ready-made staff. This leads to a merry-go-round with the same old faces rather than encouraging fresh blood into the industry.”

Burke believes that polishing up print’s image to attract future generations of workers is just as important for the long-term health of the industry as is achieving keen salaries across the board. “The industry image is not reflective of what actually happens because we are still seen as an inky, dirty industry in which you have to know someone to get a job. Print is a highly skilled modern industry that employs some of the best technology around, but we need to promote it more as a skilled occupation because it doesn’t always come up on the radar for young people.”

And it is this combination of better-trained staff and stronger competition for jobs, that will eventually lead to better wages as companies have to fight to attract a new breed of skilled workers.

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BPIF SALARY SURVEY 2007
Produced in association with the Scottish Print Employers Federation (SPEF) and sponsored by Mercury Search and Selection, the report summarises the findings of the annual BPIF Salary Survey for the UK in 31 key occupations.

The report is based on forms from 233 firms covering 2,042 unique occupations.

In the findings reproduced in these pages we had to drop information for Scotland, and we have just shown the biggest categories. For pensions we added the three pension categories in the report together to get the total number of people with any kind of pension.

If you would like to obtain a copy of the report it is free to all responding BPIF and SPEF members, but £250 to non-participating members and £500 to non-members.

For further details contact Kyle Jardine on 020 7915 8317 or visit www.britishprint.com/printdata

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