UK organisations are planning a median base pay rise of 2.5% for their next pay review. Half of all planned awards sit between 1.5% and 3.3% (lumi benchmark, n=214 · August 2026).
Key findings
- The median planned pay rise for the next review is 2.5%; the interquartile range runs 1.5%–3.3% (n=214).
- One in ten organisations plans an increase of 0.2% or less; one in ten plans 4.5% or more.
- 84% run a single annual review; only 11% review pay more often than once a year (n=252).
What pay rise are UK employers planning for the next review?
The median planned or budgeted base salary increase across contributing organisations is 2.5%. That figure describes the middle organisation, not the middle employee — each organisation reports the headline increase planned for its main population.
The spread matters as much as the middle. A tenth of contributing organisations plans essentially no increase at all (0.2% or less), while the top tenth plans 4.5% or more — so “what is everyone else doing?” has a very different answer depending on which peers you mean. In lumi the same figure is re-cut by sector and organisation size, which is where the useful version of this number lives.
How often do UK organisations review pay?
The annual review remains overwhelmingly standard: 84% of contributing organisations run a single annual cycle. 7% review twice a year, 4% quarterly, and 5% have no regular cycle at all (n=252). For most organisations the number above is therefore a once-a-year decision — which is exactly why it gets benchmarked to death in the weeks before it’s made.
What this means for a reward team
- Anchor the budget conversation on the range, not the median. A 2.5% headline hides a middle half spanning 1.5%–3.3% — where you sit inside that band is the actual decision.
- Re-cut before you present. A whole-benchmark median is a starting point; the figure that survives a board meeting is the one for your sector and size band.
- Watch the floor. With a tenth of organisations planning near-zero awards, statutory movements (minimum wage, SSP reform) will bite harder at the bottom of the distribution than the headline suggests.
About these figures
Figures are shares, medians or quartiles, as stated against each figure, computed across the lumi benchmark — the reward data of UK organisations that shared it with lumi directly, quality-assured metric by metric against our anchor register of graded published UK sources. As members join, their answers join the same pool. Each organisation reports one headline figure for its main population; comparisons are medians and percentiles, never averages, and when fewer than three organisations answered a question, the whole card is hidden.
Sample sizes are stated per figure and were computed in August 2026. Read the full methodology.