Want A Raise? Merit Pay May Be Only Way

Study: U.S. Workers Can Expect Skimpy Raises In 2009 Unless They Get One-Time Compensation

(AP)  U.S. workers can expect skimpy raises in their base salaries next year, but top performers may still fatten their paychecks with merit compensation.

A study released Tuesday by Hewitt Associates, a human resources consulting firm, found base pay will rise by 3.8 percent in 2009, marking the seventh consecutive year of flat growth.

One-time performance-based pay, however, is expected to grow by 10.6 percent. That's down slightly from 10.8 percent this year and 11.8 percent in 2007.

Performance-based rewards are popular since they don't commit companies to ongoing costs, said Ken Abosch, leader of Hewitt's compensation consulting business. The survey measured one-time performance-based awards and did not include raises based on performance.

"Most of the compensation growth today comes from (one-time merit-based) pay - it accounts for almost three-quarters of the increase," he said.

That's opposed to a decade ago, when base pay accounted for the majority of yearly compensation growth, he said.

Many workers still don't realize they're eligible for such one-time bumps, however, he said. Sometimes the opportunities are only available to upper management or new hires.

The most common one-time performance-based rewards were signing bonuses (used by 65 percent of companies), followed by incentives (63 percent), special recognition awards (56 percent), individual performance awards (41 percent) and retention bonuses (39 percent), according to the study.

The vast majority of companies, 90 percent, use performance-based rewards as a way to attract talent, the study found. The findings were based on surveys with 1,073 large organizations.

The industries expected to see above-average salary increases next year are accounting and consulting (4.6 percent), energy (4.5 percent) and construction and engineering (4.5 percent).

Almost no companies are cutting salaries, although some may be reducing their head count, Abosch said.

[jtdev1]

This all sounds fancy, a lot like the "Trickle Down Economics" that never trickled down...

See, I would for a boss that believes you can never go above and beyond because he expects me to go above and beyond...

Example: I learned 2 new programming languages in 2 months, took on 2 new projects and beat my release date by 2 weeks, all while still doing my regular job. I stayed up all hours of the night and really kicked butt to get it done, but still never got more than the standard 3% raise and his reason was this: "I expect you to go above and beyond, so your only meeting your job''s expectations..."

Ain''t that a kicker.....


Typical Corporate BS....

So as I said, this is nothing more that the same "Trickle Down Economics" that never trickled down anywhere...

[mawskrat]

we negotiate a new contract every 3 years with a no lock out- no strike clause.seems to work for us.

[mytoosense]

Most American''s havent had a decent raise since Clinton was in office!

GOP stands for Greedy Old Pri cks.

[oneamerican_]

Just think how much worse you will be when Obama raises taxes on businesses - then you for sure will never get a raise.

[jtdev1]

Just think how much worse you will be when Obama raises taxes on businesses - then you for sure will never get a raise.


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Posted by OneAmerican




You have proof of this? or just more scare tactics...?

[redveg]

Only idiots believes that corporates will, without being forced, reward those who perform well. There are a few exceptions, but most corporates keep the money at the top no matter how well their people perform. If they lose talent to someone who pays better, they don''t care because they have already pocketed their bonus for keeping salaries down and are ready to move on and screw another companies workers and stock holders.

[lochlan-2009]

It''s going to be a hard time for salaried employees. The only people who are going to have a continued decline in their worth, due to inflation, is this group. Retailers pass the inflation to these people already, and unions will push their people just above the inflation curve with the help of Dems. Contract workers can just switch jobs several times over the next year and a half, and the poor, well, minimum wage is going up, what was it 40%, and the Dems are going to own the three branches. But the buck stops at the 10,20,30 year employee, who might see a 3.5% (4.5% is smoke up your ***) increase in pay per year while the economy sees double digit inflation.

Invest NOW in the dollar, and short the commodities and foreign major currencies. American business, for the most part are at bargain basement right now. The stock market, long term, safe bets (auto industry, union businesses, basically dem businesses (everything that is currently at the bottom)) are where you should be putting your money.

[hypnotoad72]

Depends on the boss. Many of them prefer "cheap" over "loyalty".

The 1950s were indeed a far different place...

[hypnotoad72]

So as I said, this is nothing more that the same "Trickle Down Economics" that never trickled down anywhere...


Posted by jtdev1

-----


Seems more like "trickle on" economics. :( On paper, the theory is passable. Decades'' worth of reality is starting to show something different.

[rhs648]

Just think how much worse you will be when Obama raises taxes on businesses - then you for sure will never get a raise.

Posted by OneAmerican

You have proof of this? or just more scare tactics...?

Posted by jtdev1

As a small business owner I can tell you exactly what happens when profits are squeezed by higher labor costs and higher taxes. The first thing you do is to look for ways to save money. Often, this means looking for less expensive suppliers, cutting back employee hours, cutting back on employees, and cutting back on raises. If you look at newspapers, their revenues are way down. This means they have fewer employees on board and the remaining employees are given more duties. My neice just got terminated after many years at a newspaper company even after she went from managing one department to managing three departments. Ultimately, businesses that can''t make a decent profit fold leaving employees with very little.

[rhs648]

Depends on the boss. Many of them prefer "cheap" over "loyalty".

The 1950s were indeed a far different place...--------

Posted by hypnotoad72

Yes indeed the 1950''s were a different place. During WWII it was difficult to find much in the way of consumer goods. The military employed millions of men leaving a labor shortage back here in the states. Women went to work. At the end of WWII, many families had fairly sizeable savings. On top of that, the GI Bill made it possible for millions of men to further their education and buy homes. This helped create prosperity for the next 30 or 40 years. Today, we live in a global economy with fierce competition from countries like China where labor costs are so much lower than our own. Today, you can buy a shirt at Walmart for $5.00 where you msay have spent $15.00 twenty years ago. In 1982, an Aplle II Plus cost several thoudsand dollars. It did not come with a color monitor or a hard drive. Today, it is possible to buy computers for as little as four or five hundred dollars.

[rhs648]

correction

Depends on the boss. Many of them prefer "cheap" over "loyalty".

The 1950s were indeed a far different place...--------

Posted by hypnotoad72

Yes indeed the 1950''s was a different place. During WWII it was difficult to find much in the way of consumer goods. The military employed millions of men leaving a labor shortage back here in the states. Women went to work. At the end of WWII, many families had fairly sizeable savings. On top of that, the GI Bill made it possible for millions of men to further their education and buy homes. This helped create prosperity for the next 30 or 40 years. Today, we live in a global economy with fierce competition from countries like China where labor costs are so much lower than our own. Today, you can buy a shirt at Walmart for $5.00 where you may have spent $15.00 twenty years ago. In 1982, an Aplle II Plus cost several thoudsand dollars. It did not come with a color monitor or a hard drive. Today, it is possible to buy computers for as little as four or five hundred dollars.

[irliberal]

"A study released Tuesday by Hewitt Associates, a human resources consulting firm, found base pay will rise by 3.8 percent in 2009, marking the seventh consecutive year of flat growth."

Wow... just after Clintons 8 consecutive years of steady growth. That''s Dubya for ya.

GO OBAMA / BIDEN 2008! Time to kick out the neocons, they''re over - done - toast.

[whitemale08]

Just another example of Reaganomics and excuses that disciples of "trickle-down country club" economists use to explain the devastation of the "middle-class".

These apostles and disciples of this false religion never research their own philosophers of fiat-currency and the "inflation tax" on the poor and "middle-class".

They falsely believe that you can war and carry on war without a price, without taxing the Wall Street crowd and the very weapons industries that profit from such treason.

These enemies of the "middle-class" namely Republicans will never understand the reality of our failed economy until it effects them directly. And it will.

You can see the empty billboard signs every where you go, the empty gas stations and half filled grocery shelves everywhere.

You guys have failed and need to go 8 IS ENOUGH!!!

[sistatee-2009]

So as I said, this is nothing more that the same "Trickle Down Economics" that never trickled down anywhere...
Posted by jtdev1

Not quite. Money from Nelson Rockefeller did trickle down to David.

[rhs648]

Should those who have good jobs, mortgages to pay, and kids to put through college jump on the change mantra without knowing what the change will be or how much it will cost. If change is code for higher taxes, we will just have less in our pockets each pay check, If workers read their pay stubs and realized how much they pay in federal taxes and social security, they might revolt. This is especially true when you add in the ever increasing state, local, and property taxes. Now, if I received welfare, food subsidies, free health benefits, and free child care, I might feel differently. However, I am one of the people who pays for these benefits for the beneit of others.

[skeezix06]

Until the Bush administration we paid taxes for repairs and upkeep to the infrastructure; roads, schools, etc. Nowadays we pay taxes so that we can attack and invade countries with major oil deposits...

We pay social security so that we don''t have to watch our parents choose between eating dog food or moving in with us and as insurance that we might have a pittance when we, too, grow old. By the way, that booming stock market sure is an easy way to create enough money to live after we grow old, isn''t it. (sarcasm)

I guess suicide centers could be an alternative but it isn''t one that I favor.

[generey]

I am soooo glad that I am thru with the cut-throat employment sector.

[jsklinemn]

I see there are some in here that given the straight skinny from a real business owner that higher taxes will mean no raises, that person then again goes and blames trickle down economics (which hasn''t really been much in force since the early 90''s).

The next thing I would suspect that person would do is union organize your said small business and your only choice after they successfully get a union in there, is to call all your employees to a meeting and inform them that they are all permanently laid off, and no possible chance for re-employment as your small business--is closing for good.

Then you re-open again in another location, new name, etc., and start over. Only to have the same vicious cycle happen again.

[u-r-right]

Yes ladies and gentlemen. My job, for example, requires no sales per se. I have no control over a salesperson who wants to work or one who is lazy. Yet each year, I have to meet monetary "goals" just like a sales person. They seem to go up a little every year no matter what the economy is doing.

Welcome to the American way and business that is purely profit driven. No profits mean layoffs. But I see the CEO has a new car every year or two.

[greeneyes222]

Merit pay? Who are you trying to kid?

There has always been merit pay - employees who did a good job received more. Only now employees who do a good job receive very little more.

Too many companies cut key employees to save a few bucks by replacing them with kids who''ll work for nothing. It''s bad for the company, bad for the good employee, and bad even for those kids, who are started out at a much lower rate with no mentoring. But it gives that one-time shot that accountants (and Wall Street) love so much.

What a joke.

[toldyouso12]

Merit pay is not a given. Often it is political (who gets it or is even considered for it) In many companies merit pay has nothing to do with individual performance but with what the company or division as a whole has done. When divisions out perform their projected growth, there are often bonuses or "merit pay" but in the times of recession, there is no such pay and often, there are cuts or even lay offs or down sizing even for salaried persons.

Merit pay--depends on what a boss wants to recognize or not recognize and often has very little to do with who really deserves it. Some companies reward handsomely--some ---nothing. But in these uncertain times, most will not be awarding much--except in the very top tiers where they pay money to keep people



Of course the people they keep often command exorbitant salaries and are the least likely to need that money. I know of one company that fired or laid off over 150 workers, then 3 days later, turned around and gave every salaried employee making over 75K a 20 to 60K bonus. Then about 9 months later, they hired all those people back and made them start all over at the bottom--even making them wait for benefits. THIS is what happens in companies with no job protections---the state of America.

[tryhonesty]

The RepubliCON posts on this site always use, fear, lie and attack statements. If your "Red" party is so great, why is this country in such bad shape and start telling me DETAILED ways your Greedy OLD Party is going to improve doing business...Just what I thought, the G..OLD..P can only come up with giving Corporate Welfare, tax breaks to the very rich, (the rest of us the bill), vouchers (again for the rest of us to provide subsidies for the rich private schools), and war mongering. The same OLD FAILED RepubliCON policies for the last 40 years! Now the Big Oil dream ticket of McSAME and Palin...Ah, How I look forward to $6 to $8 a gallon gas and the Second Guilded Age, so few Yahoos controlling Soviet America...

[toldyouso12]

There''''s a reason for that. When big business is taken care of, so are the workers. When the democrats get in there with their spend, spend, spend and tax, tax, tax mentality, everyone suffers.

Posted by MyOpinion1 at 09:47 AM : Sep 02, 2008


Not true. Sometimes when big business is taken care of--they still leave for greener pastures where they can pay less or they hire illegals or HB-1 visas and then don''t pay benefits and can cut costs.

You sound like a person who believes if you bow your head and shut up, nothing bad will happen. Is there some huge, ignorant chicken somewhere breeding you people? From wars to work, you think if you just quietly suck it up--then you won''t get hurt--so you suck it up to cops, suck it up to businesses and suck it up to wars and lies--then one day, you suck it up and still get the shaft--that is the day you find out that there is no right or wrong way to achieve--sucking it up is about as prudent as the "good wife" who thinks if she does not make waves, always cooks and looks good--her hubby will not stray. Those ex wives are the most bitter of all--when they were married they decided that everyone else who got divorced, did it wrong --so they towed the line--when they get thrown away--after trying to do it all for their husbands--they find out their head bowing routine, did not help them at all. Sometime ****** happens--but smart people preempt and limit the amount of ****** that they take off others.

[b-gene]

Merit pay? Who are you trying to kid?

There has always been merit pay - employees who did a good job received more. Only now employees who do a good job receive very little more.

Too many companies cut key employees to save a few bucks by replacing them with kids who''''ll work for nothing. It''''s bad for the company, bad for the good employee, and bad even for those kids, who are started out at a much lower rate with no mentoring. But it gives that one-time shot that accountants (and Wall Street) love so much.

What a joke.


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Posted by greeneyes222 at 05:22 PM : Sep 02, 2008

I could''nt have said it better. And as u-r-right said... the CEO''s have new car''s on a regular basis. What make me sick is that so so many "US" companies are subsidiaries of FOREIGN company''s. THAT is corporate America.

[scottyusa]

Well I guess it will be a good time to be in the knee pad business eh?

[toldyouso12]

What make me sick is that so so many "US" companies are subsidiaries of FOREIGN company''''s. THAT is corporate America.

Posted by B-Gene at 05:36 PM : Sep 02, 2008


That is why the United States is known as the "Great Wh.o.r.e" While most countries build in protections to ensure healthy competition and protect their domestic work force; America pimps out their technology, resources and jobs to make a buck today while individual CEOs and WAll street gets theirs--after that--when it all falls apart--they move on like viruses to the next host--and the average American worker just loses. Anything for a buck--just like a w.h.o.r.e.

[scottyusa]

Big business does run this country. Wjere is Ross Perot wyhen we need him?

[u-r-right]

Come to think of it, it''s not only the CEO''s with the new cars but also the team of bean counters (accountants) and VP''s of this department and that department. And I work for a pretty small company of only about 300 employees.

The new trend is this cost accounting. I have to report my hours worked on each project to 2 different people...my supervisor and a bean counter. There is time and cost placed on everything we do. It seems to me there is a lot of money being wasted this way. Their jobs consist of attending meetings and making nice charts and reports. And they make more money for this. It''s just doesn''t seem right. I''d almost feel guilty if I had their job.

[u-r-right]

Same with HR. We''ve got a lady who works part-time as our HR person and she just got approved to hire an assistant to work as "the cheerleader" while she keeps a watchful eye on our insurance plan and benefits. Is this necessary for two people?

[rhs648]

So as I said, this is nothing more that the same "Trickle Down Economics" that never trickled down anywhere...


Posted by jtdev1

-----


Seems more like "trickle on" economics. :( On paper, the theory is passable. Decades'''' worth of reality is starting to show something different.

Posted by hypnotoad72

Most employees are paid to do a job. They are not the owners or the shareholders of the company. They are probably paid whatever the job is worth. Generally speaking, those with greater responsibility earn more. If you are unhappy you have options of finding other employment, changing careers, or starting your own business.

[ubrew12]

"Want A Raise? Merit Pay May Be Only Way"

Three-fourths of the economic growth during the Bush Presidency went to the richest 1% of Americans.

Some of us got a raise, anyway.

rhs648 said: "[people] with greater responsibility earn more. If you are unhappy you have options of finding other employment...or starting your own business."

Maybe it''d be more direct if you told them to eat cake.

[republic1776]

Bet this don''t go over well with the unions.
A raise based on merit!

[Syndicate]

Be the best worker you can and you can give yourself raises. How you ask? Find another job. Go climb that ladder. the guy or gal who does his work and never complains never gets a raise. You have to be a go getter. Thats why men make more than women.