2009 Salary Increase Budgets: The Latest

By reader request, here is a summary of the latest research on anticipated average/median 2009 salary increase budgets, ordered from the newest (most recent) to oldest (dating back to December/January):

Watson Wyatt (April 2009):  2.0%

Hay Group (March 2009):  2.8%

Watson Wyatt (Feb 2009):  1.5%

Mercer (Jan 2009): 3.2%

WorldatWork (Dec 2008/Jan 2009): 3.1%

Obviously, salary budgets have been pretty fluid over the past several months (plus, as I posted earlier here, salary freezes and even reductions have also been an unfortunate part of the recent pay landscape).  Given the most recent data available, I'm currently calling 2009 to be in the range 2.0%-2.5%.  Participants in the recent Watson Wyatt study predicted that their 2010 would be up around 3.0% - an early indicator that salary increase budgets will bottom out in 2009 and begin to rebound next year.

Comments

[Kelly]

Thank you for staying on top of the latest in the compensation world. I love your blog and find it so useful to my career and our business!

[Ann Bares]

Thanks, Kelly. Comments like yours make it all worthwhile!

[Dan]

Conference Board April update is at 2.5%.

[Carla]

As far as you know, can we freely exchange compensation information with companies that are not competitors? In other words, would it be an ant-trust violation if you did so?

[Ann Bares]

Dan:

Thanks for the update - I should keep an eye on Conference Board as well. Good reminder.

Carla:

The exchange of compensation information is regulated by anti-trust regulations regardless of whether the company is a business competitor or not. For more, see my most recent post on these regulations...

http://compforce.typepad.com/compensation_force/2009/03/remember-the-exchange-of-salary-information-in-surveys-otherwise-is-bound-by-antitrust-regulations.html

[Carla]

Ann,

What is the source for your statement about salary surveys done by non-competitors being regulated by anti-trust laws? I can't find a legal reference that says this.

Thanks,

Carla

[Ann Bares]

Carla:

The post link referenced earlier goes directly to the regulations. It is my understanding that this is not limited to "business competitors" but applies more broadly to "labor market competitors" or any organizations who might be competing for the same talent. Survey companies (and their legal advisors) that I know of and work with take the position that the safe harbor rules must be applied across the board.

There is a related conversation going on within the WorldatWork online community that you might want to check out (if you aren't already registered as a community member, you will be asked to do so -it's free...)

http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/community/discussions/discuss.jsp?did=7429&tid=7450