490 - THE TWICE-MONTHLY BULLELTIN FOR PAY AND BENEFITS SPECIALISTS - Craft pay survey - Over the past decade, growing competitive pressures and the pursuit of greater flexibility have encouraged more and more employers to develop new pay arrangements for their craft employees. The latest IRS survey of craftworkers' wages and hours in 50 organisations finds that: the traditional "craft" rate is being erode? by technological and organisational change. These factors continue to break down long-standing occupational and pay categories between ,,production" and "craft", and blue- and white-collar workers; craft pay rates vary widely. The notion of a specific rate for the job for people apprenticed and qualified in the various individua trades no longer describes the reality in large parts of industry; half of all craft rates (the interquartile range) fall between GBP234 to GBP333 a week, with the median (midpoint) pitched at GBP298; basic hours range from 36 to 40 a week, with a median figure of 37.5 - unchanged since our previous survey in 1998; and settlements among the 50 groups whose pay reviews yielded a basic rise in the year to November 1999 were worth 3% at the median, with half of all deals falling between 2.5% and 4%.