The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) said human resources executives expected to increase basic pay rates by a median 5% - unchanged from the previous two quarters and the joint-highest readings since the survey started in 2012.

Pay expectations in the public sector rose to 4%, the highest recorded by the CIPD, from 3.3%.

The survey of 2,000 employers took place between June 9 and July 5, before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak offered a pay rise of more than 6% to teachers, doctors and other public-sector workers.

Private-sector wage growth expectations of 5% found by the CIPD were in line with those in a recent Bank of England survey of businesses.

The BoE said on Aug. 3 that pay growth had failed to slow, creating a risk of persistent high inflation and higher interest rates.

Growth in earnings excluding bonuses - which typically runs slightly higher than pay settlements - was an annual 7.3% in the three months to May. Data on Tuesday is forecast to show a further increase.

The CIPD said businesses were also becoming more likely to match or exceed pay offers by rivals for their staff.

Two fifths of firms said they had made a counteroffer to keep staff in the past year. Just over half of those firms said they were resorting to counteroffers more than previously, compared with 9% who said the opposite.

Where a counteroffer was made, in 38% of cases it matched the competing salary and in 40% of cases it exceeded it. However, almost a third of employers believed counteroffers were ineffective at keeping staff.

"For some employers, counteroffers may only be valuable as a short-term option and ... employees will move if wider aspects of the job, such as workload, autonomy and environment, don't meet their expectations," the CIPD said.

(Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by William Schomberg)

By David Milliken