2012 Compensation Budget Highlights

Overall Projected 2012 Increases :

3.0% (excluding organizations not providing increases)
2.9% (including organizations not providing increases)

Observations:

•  Due in large part to unemployment, the rate of inflation (3.2% for the 12-month period ending August 2011) exceeded the average 2011 salary budget increase of 2.8%.

•  In spite of continued high unemployment, employers are concerned about finding, keeping and rewarding top performers. Both WorldatWork and Mercer report that organizations are continuing “pay for performance” practices: tying salary increases to employee performance.  WorldatWork reports an average estimated merit increase of 4.0%  for top performers, 2.7% for middle performers, and 0.7% for low performers.

A number of factors may influence projected salary increase budgets: industry sector, ownership (public, private or non-profit), organization size, employee category (officer/executive, exempt, non-exempt).

It is not uncommon for actual salary increases to fall short of the projections. WorldatWork reported that average merit increase budgets for 2011 were 2.8% - slightly below the 2.9% projection.

Salary structure adjustments in 2011 were projected to average 2.0%. A salary structure adjustment is made in an effort to maintain competitive salary ranges. Bear in mind that a structure adjustment is not the same as the salary increase pool. The salary increase pool is based on additional factors, including the organization’s compensation and talent management strategies, what the organization can afford to do based in part on business performance, and wanting to remain competitive within a particular market. Historically, structure adjustments have been 60%-70% of projected salary increase budgets.

sources:
Mercer 2011/2012 U.S. Compensation Planning Survey report
WorldatWork 2011/2012 Salary Budget Survey