Pay Range Adjustments to Largely Stagnate Through 2013

Projections for average pay increases in 2013 are unimpressive as reported by Compdata Surveys BenchmarkPro,which only anticipates a 2.8 percent jump over current budgets. Pay range adjustments are also expected to remain stable as more than 75 percent of organizations have pay structures that have already been, or will be, adjusted in 2012. The average adjustment for the year was 1.9 percent, the rate also predicted for 2013.

Adjustments vary by industry. Some of the major industries showed the following pay range adjustments in 2012: utilities (1.9 percent), banking and finance (1.7 percent), and hospitality organizations (1.6 percent). The highest adjustment projection for 2013 is for manufacturing and distribution organizations (2.2 percent) while the lowest projected adjustment is for non-profits (1.4 percent).

“The length of time between pay range adjustments has remained the same over the last year at an average of 15.4 months, but that is still much longer than the average 11.4 months reported in 2009,” said Amy Kaminski, vice president for Compdata Surveys. “Combine this with pay range adjustments’ anemic rate of growth over the past couple of years and it reflects a very guarded outlook by employers.”

Nearly 75 percent of organizations were found to withhold pay increases if an employee is over their established pay range maximum. Health care employers, in particular, withhold pay increases 87.8 percent of the time for these employees. However, 64.5 percent of employers offer lump sum increases to employees having exceeded their max pay range.