UK pay settlements continued their upward trend in January withmost deals averaging between 3.5% and 5%, Incomes DataServices reported Monday. IDS said the first pay settlementanalysis for January 2001 showed a "modest, but significant"rise in the overall range of increases. The 46 increases recordedso far this year cover 188,000 employees. Many are inflation-linked rises paid under long-term deals, typically givingincreases in the 3.2% to 3.7% range. However, the newly-negotiated January deals are generally a little higher - thosemonitored so far are mostly between 3.5% and 5%. Pay rises thisJanuary are higher than a year earlier. IDS said this was to beexpected because in the run-up to January 2000, headlineinflation was below 2%. This time round the inflation rate of 3.2%in November, announced in December, has been a stronginfluence on January pay budgets and the trigger for many of theincreases from long-term deals. January is the key month in theyear for private sector pay settlements and tends to set the pacefor increases through to April, the next most important month.April is the key month for the public sector where there arealready proposed increases of 3.7% for nurses and 3.9% fordoctors. The 10% increases for teachers in Scotland also takeeffect in April.