Ask for a pay rise – everyone else is

As inflation bites and the labour market remains tight, many of the nation's employees are asking for a pay rise. Merryn Somerset Webb explains why you should do that too.

Striking education workers
Industrial action is back in fashion as workers demand higher pay
(Image credit: © Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Open the papers on pretty much any page and you will see stories about other people asking for pay rises – and other stories explaining just why they are doing so.

In today’s Times the first headline in the business section is headlined “Factory pay deals soar as inflation accelerates.” Turns out that manufacturers in the UK have agreed pay settlements of “up to 14%” in an attempt to mitigate the intense pressure caused by acute staff shortages.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.