# What are merit increases (2 figures)

> The median published figure in the Merit Increase and Pay Review Benchmark is 3.35 percent across 2 sources' own pages (range 3.20 to 3.50 percent), read 12 October 2026.

Reviewvo · https://reviewvo.com/datasets/merit-increase-and-pay-review-benchmark/ · computed 2026-10-23

**Median published figure:** 3.35 % (range 3.2 to 3.5 %; 2 published figures; 2 of 7 sources read publish one).

2 of the 7 named sources read in full publish a figure; 5 publish none, read 12 October 2026.

The median is up 0.15 percent since 26 September 2026 (was 3.20 percent across 1).

## By jurisdiction

| Breakdown | Median | Range | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| jurisdiction UK | 3.5 % | 3.5 to 3.5 % | 1 |

## Every figure, with its source

One row per source: the figure the source's own page publishes, the page, and the day it was read.

| Source | Figure | Breakdown | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Office for National Statistics](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours) | 3.5 % | UK | 2026-10-10 |
| [BLS Employment Cost Index news release](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/eci.nr0.htm) | 3.2 % |  | 2026-10-12 |

## The sentence each figure was read from (2)

- [Office for National Statistics](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours), read 2026-10-10: "Annual growth in employees' average earnings was 3.5% for regular earnings (excluding bonuses) and 3.9% for total earnings (including bonuses)."
- [BLS Employment Cost Index news release](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/eci.nr0.htm), read 2026-10-12: "Wages and salaries increased 3.2 percent and benefit costs increased 3.8 percent over the year."

## Read in full, publishes no figure

- [BLS Employment Cost Index](https://www.bls.gov/eci/), read 2026-09-11: every candidate on the page was refused
- [Statistics Canada, average weekly earnings table 14-10-0064-01](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1410006401), read 2026-10-11: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- [Fair Work Ombudsman newsroom (the wage-review and penalty releases)](https://www.fairwork.gov.au/newsroom/media-releases), read 2026-10-11: every candidate on the page was refused
- [BLS National Compensation Survey, employee benefits](https://www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/), read 2026-10-12: every candidate on the page was refused
- [Fair Work Ombudsman, the annual wage review](https://www.fairwork.gov.au/about-us/workplace-laws/annual-wage-review), read 2026-10-11: read in full and no accepted figure on the page

## Methodology

Every row is a verbatim sentence read from the named source's own page through our fetch service on the date shown, hash-pinned to the stored read (the sha of the page's visible text; the raw page is mirrored to R2). 2 of the 7 named sources that could be read published a usable figure; 5 published none and are recorded as not published, never filled in; 1 could not be read (blocked, dead or unreachable) and count nowhere. The headline figures (median, minimum, maximum, quartiles) are over ONE figure per source in % (a source's median where its page yielded several accepted sentences), so N counts sources, never sentences; 21 candidate sentence(s) were refused by a reviewer with the reason recorded. The fuller derivation this dataset is chartered to grow into (not yet what the figures above are; they are each source's own published figure as read): the authority's own wage-growth figure per jurisdiction and period (ECI wages and salaries, average weekly earnings, the annual wage review decision, the public-sector pay remit) set beside the merit matrix a buyer actually needs: what a 'meets expectations' and an 'exceeds' increase is once the market figure is the pool; changed-since on each release, which is the news every review season

## Sources

- [BLS Employment Cost Index](https://www.bls.gov/eci/) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [BLS Employment Cost Index news release](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/eci.nr0.htm) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Office for National Statistics](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/averageweeklyearningsingreatbritain/latest) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Statistics Canada, average weekly earnings table 14-10-0064-01](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1410006401) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Fair Work Ombudsman newsroom (the wage-review and penalty releases)](https://www.fairwork.gov.au/newsroom/media-releases) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [BLS National Compensation Survey, employee benefits](https://www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Fair Work Ombudsman, the annual wage review](https://www.fairwork.gov.au/about-us/workplace-laws/annual-wage-review) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Office for National Statistics](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)

## Cite or embed

- The median published figure in the Merit Increase and Pay Review Benchmark is 3.35 percent across 2 sources' own pages (range 3.20 to 3.50 percent), read 12 October 2026.
- 2 of the 7 named sources read in full publish a figure; 5 publish none, read 12 October 2026.
- Merit Increase and Pay Review Benchmark, jurisdiction UK: median 3.50 percent across 1 source, read 12 October 2026.
- The median is up 0.15 percent since 26 September 2026 (was 3.20 percent across 1).

Cite as: "Reviewvo Merit Increase and Pay Review Benchmark", updated 2026-10-23, https://reviewvo.com/datasets/merit-increase-and-pay-review-benchmark/.

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