FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 18, 2013
For more information, contact:
Jessica Wahaus
Marketing Manager
(800) 300-9570
jwahaus@compdatasurveys.com
Pay Increase Budgets Remain Stable as Unemployment Continues to Drop
Kansas City, Kan. – In June 2013, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the unemployment rate at 7.6 percent, which is a 2.4 percent drop from the recession high of 10 percent reported in October 2009. Although the unemployment rate has slowly dropped over the last few years, the 2013 Compensation Data Not-For-Profit survey results show pay increase budgets in the industry have remained stable at 2.6 percent since 2012. The results indicate employers expect pay increase budgets to be the same in 2014.
“Stagnant increases have become the norm over the past few years for many employers who remained conservative through the recession,” said Amy Kaminski, vice president for Compdata Surveys. “Now, with predictions of a more mobile workforce, companies may need to reexamine the competitiveness of their compensation programs in order to retain skilled workers.”
Pay increase budgets vary slightly by industry as associations reported pay increase budgets of 2.7 percent and expect a rise to 2.8 percent next year. Government entities reported a budget of 2.5 percent, while non-profit healthcare organizations reported a 2013 pay increase budget of 2.6 percent.
Employers use pay increase budgets to make various adjustments to employees’ salaries, such as merit increases, market adjustments, promotional increases and more. Sixty-four percent of non-profit employers are using pay increase budgets to grant merit increases to employees, and the reported average merit increase budget this year was 2.5 percent. More than 36 percent of participating organizations use the pay increase budget for market adjustments, compared to 17.5 percent using budgets for promotional increases. Nearly 16 percent of organizations surveyed allocated part of the pay increase budget to cost of living adjustments, with the average adjustment reported at 2.2 percent.
About the Survey
Compensation Data Not-For-Profit 2013 provides a comprehensive summary of pay data, benefits information and pay practices with an effective date of January 1, 2013. More than 150 industry-specific job titles and 450 benchmark titles were surveyed ranging from entry-level to top executives, with data collected from more than 3,800 organizations across the country.
Since 1988, Compdata Surveys has offered quality data at sensible prices to organizations from coast to coast, and is the nation’s leading compensation and benefits survey data provider. Thousands of organizations provide data in each of our nine industry-specific surveys every year, ensuring the reliability of our results. For more information about the surveys, contact Jessica Wahaus at (800) 300-9570.
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