Estate staff salaries revealed

Despite the economic turmoil the country is currently experiencing, staff availability remains extremely limited and recruitment was highlighted as an increasingly difficult issue by 86% of the respondents to our biennial Estate Staff Salaries Survey.

Encouragingly, significantly fewer of our respondents (42%) listed staff retention as a growing problem. This suggests, once recruited, estate staff feel well looked after in their roles.

With such an imbalance between staff supply and demand, potential recruits are also becoming increasingly selective about the roles they are prepared to take on, with remuneration just part of their criteria.

Over 40% of survey respondents said that they were increasingly being questioned about their social and environmental policies.

According to the survey, the average increase in salaries following pay reviews this year was 5.4%, exactly double the level recorded by the 2020 edition of the survey.

The increase is well above the average boost of around 2% or so received by public sector workers this year, but slightly below the 6.2% hike received by private sector workers between June and August.

It is, however, difficult to make exact comparisons given that many estate staff remuneration packages do include some kind of subsidised accommodation. The average figure also hides a wide range of increases.

A small number of estates seem to have fully matched the increase in inflation when calculating salary rises for their staff, while a number are some way below.

Please download the full report for a full list of average estate staff salaries. For more information please contact Alastair Paul of our Rural Consultancy team.