70% of bike retail staff salaries have not improved in two years

Research undertaken by CyclingIndustry.News has found a trend of stagnant industry salaries within bike retail. 

With many businesses being forced to consolidate on overhead costs to avoid falling out of profitability bike retail staff are increasingly in the firing line.

70% of a pool of 74 independent retailers, both large and small, told us that wages had not improved in two years. Within that 70%, 23% said that accounting for inflation wages had actually fallen in real terms. The remaining 47% said there had been no change in staff wage packets in the last 24 months.

The remaining 30% suggested that they believed wages have risen for staff.

A drive to bring about a National Living Wage had, last time we checked, not made much of a mark on the bicycle business. As far as industry brands go, Brompton and IslaBikes are two of just a small pool to declare themselves a Living Wage provider.

Unfortunately, in many cases, bike retail doesn’t seem to be paying mechanics a skilled worker’s wage, as might be expected in the automotive business, for example.

This opens the door to other questions, of course, most pertinently; are workshop’s charging enough for their work? That’s something we’ll explore down the line.

Related: Bike shop closure rates and forecasts for the future