Salary increase budgets have reached a 20-year high! Salary budgets are rising in the United States to an average of 4.1% for 2023. The budgeted projection has been at a 3.3 average, but that quickly evaporated as the employee salaries began increasing exponentially higher.  The projected mean and median for 2023 in the United States are as follows accordingly to the WorldatWork recently published survey:

The rapid rise in salary increase budgets over the past couple of years, combined with today’s volatile economic environment may present a challenge to organizations. They must leverage data and think strategically as they formulate 2023 compensation budget recommendations and negotiate for higher-than-average increases. The average timing between pay increases across all employee categories still remains at an average of 12 months with executive levels at a slightly greater timeframe of 12.3 months..

Most organizations and industries are providing general merit salary increases including COLA’s. However, several organizations are providing increases more often to retain their staff. Utilizing salary surveys and market pricing strategies these organizations are focusing on benchmarking roles in similar organizations. Retention strategies are more prevalent than ever before because of the “resignation tsunami” that is currently a major drain on many organizations. Paying people correctly is the number one strategy to combat this issue.

KardasLarson has seen an uptick in the number of organizations requesting assistance with market pricing for their positions so that they are not lagging the market. More focus is being placed on maintaining equitable and competitive compensation for their valuable employees as a way to retain them.

If you are interested in having your positions evaluated against the current market, please contact KardasLarson.