British employees have not been successful in achieving higher pay rises in the first quarter of the year.

Pay rises have had problems keeping in touch with inflation rates.

The average increase hit upon by wage negotiators was 3.5% - the same rate for January and February. Early indications for April reveal a drop of 0.5%.

The survey took the data from details of 214 pay rises affecting about 500,000 employees according to the IRS. Around 70 responses had been collated for this month.