Annual Compensation Survey Finds No Raises

The Titan Group, a human resources consulting firm with offices in Richmond and Charlottesville, is out with its eighth annual Compensation Survey, a snapshot of 112 organizations in the area...

Weisiger:      …that represent all types of jobs in all types of industries.

Titan partner Lee Weisiger:

Weisiger:  ..Probably the most startling, but maybe not totally surprising, is that approximately 50 percent of the firms that participated reported that they were not giving any pay increases in 2010.

The silver lining, he said, may be that most employers are also not cutting salaries:

Weisiger:    Actually, it’s a little bit better than last year.  Last year about 2/3s of companies did nothing, but in prior years 95-100 percent of companies would always do some sort of cost-of-living adjustment or some sort of merit increase.  So this is obviously a symptom of the recession that we have and tells us that companies are still uncertain about providing pay increases because, I believe, the economy is uncertain in their minds.

The salary survey data, Weisiger said, covers 163 different job classifications, and it includes information on base pay and bonuses, sorted by company size and ownership:

Weisiger:      The companies that we survey is a nice cross-section of organizations within the Richmond area.  It includes privately-held, publicly-held, the companies as well as public sector.  And, not surprisingly, in the public sector area, they’ve all got pay freezes, they had pay freezes for last year.  And, I think they’re gonna have problems well into the future.  This includes not only municipalities, but also state agencies.

Half of the employers surveyed are giving raises:

Weisiger:      The last 10 or 15 years the standard average increase for companies was 3.5 to 4 percent, up until last year.  What I have seen is that of the 50 percent of those companies that are granting increases, the average or median is around 3%.

The survey showed no evidence that any particular industry is more likely to give a raise:

Weisiger:  I think there are certain emerging companies, companies that are growing, there are some that are doing well, they tend to be smaller companies.  I think the larger companies are the ones that are having more difficult times.

While some sectors, Weisiger noted, are growing, that growth hasn’t been so robust that employers are inclined to add to their operating costs by increasing wages and with unemployment holding steady there’s no pressing need to raise salaries to retain talent.  At the low end of the scale were custodial workers:

Weisiger:      $23,817 up to an average or median salary per CEO of $219,000.

Salaries for employees with a college degree range from the mid forties to the high eighties. Some workers, while not getting a raise, could be paid more money:

Weisiger:      Salaries and wages are fixed.  And things like bonuses and incentives can be paid if certain things happen.  And so some companies are starting to look at alternate compensation scenarios, whereby if certain results occur then there might be a bonus.  But providing a pay increase automatically in times where economic results are uncertain, is not happening like it used to.

Comparative compensation information, Weisiger added, is an important data set for companies and organizations of all sizes.  It ensures that they are paying on a competitive basis and in line with market conditions.

Learn more online at TitanHR.com.

John Ogle, WCVE News