Agents pay is below UK average
According to a recent survey produced in association with ABTA, salaries in the travel industry are up to 18% lower than the national average. The survey was undertaken by Croner Reward. According to director, Vivienne Copeland, with the exception of pay at the senior management level (where pay is about 8.3% above national average), agents are between 6% and 18.5% behind national levels. The comparison is made by ranking various roles and comparing them with jobs from other sectors that have a similar level of responsibility. There are significant regional variations in agents pay according to Croner. Not surprisingly, agents based in London are best off due to London weighting, with pay of 14.7% above the national average. Agents in the north east are the worst paid, with salaries up to 26% below the national average. There was some good news though – according to the survey, agents get better bonuses and better pay rises than employees in other occupations. Croner claims that around half of respondents said they get a bonus (not commission), which is usually around 5.5% of their basic pay. This is two or three times as many as other sectors according to Croner. Pay rises in the last year were in line with the national pay settlement average of 3%, although 10% of respondents reported a pay increase of over 10%. Looking ahead to the coming year, Croner predicts that agents shouldn’t lose out with pay rises of between 3% and 4.5% against a national average of 3.2%. The survey took a cross section of ABTA members from 36 organisations and questioned them on pay and benefits. According to Croner, the amount of data provided by the participants represents 5,119 employees. The organisations varied in size – 17 recorded a turnover of less than £10 million, and three a turnover of more than £250 million, with the rest somewhere between. In terms of benefits, 79% of agents responding said they got a pension scheme, against a national average of 95%; and 52% of agents responding said they got private health care insurance, which compares with a national average of 54%. Hours worked per week were in line with other sectors at around 37.5.
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