By HAL WILLIAMS
ESG, THE environment, sustainability and renewable energy are modern business buzzwords — but workers in environmentally disruptive industries are still arguably better paid.
Two of the top five sectors in an earnings study by UK trading platform CMC Markets are from sectors that involve fossil-fuels, chemicals, manufacturing, or quarrying. The study analysed data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for wages and salaries.
Rewards are proportional to the wealth of the sector, and UK mining and quarrying workers saw the biggest wage increases in a single year. And over the past five years, weekly earnings in the industry have risen 13.82 percent.
The highest average five-year increase — 27.87 percent — went to the Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities industry. Mining and quarrying saw the biggest wage increase in a single year: £1,203 to £1,382 from January 2022 to 2023. That’s 12.95 percent.
Second on the overall list comes the Administrative and Support Service Activities industry. The more modest weekly earnings of £490 rose to £561 between January 2022 and January 2023. That equates to 12.66 percent.
The Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities industry comes in third. Between January 2022 and January 2023, weekly earnings went from £854 to £940, a change of 9.15 percent. But the sector’s five-year increase of 27.87 was the highest of the lot.
Taking fourth place on the list is the Manufacturing Industry for Chemicals and Man-made Fibres. Average weekly earnings went from £817 in January 2022 to £888 in January 2023: eight percent. The five-year increase was 16.67 percent.
Rounding out the top five is the Education industry, where weekly earnings have gone from £488 in January 2022 to £527 in January 2023, or 7.4 percent. Over the past five years, the weekly wage has risen 17.27 percent.
