Salaries: No Raise, but Maybe a Bonus

As if we didn't know this, Money tells us that employers are increasingly moving from pay increases to bonuses as means of compensation. Here are the details:

Employers are using bonuses and other forms of alternative compensation in lieu of hikes to base salaries, a survey released Wednesday showed.

The survey said companies are relying more and more on variable pay -- performance-related awards that must be re-earned each year -- to attract and retain top talent.

Employers like performance-based awards because they are just that, tied to the performance of both the employee and the company, according to a consultant at Hewitt Associates.

The report said those modest raises may not offset the rising costs of health insurance and energy and could leave workers with less money in their wallet next year.

That's just great -- raises so small that they are lower than increased costs in other areas. Where are the gold old days of 5-7% increases?

Comments

[hterry]

This must be mainly for private companies because I work at a state institution and the only way I can seem to get a raise is if the boss writes a letter for exceptional duties which would only give me 5%. Bonuses are unheard of around here. Hell, we just got a cost of living raise this past July which normally we get every year but havent seen in about 3 years. Concomittantly with that COL raise though our retirement funds are going up so there's really no increase in pay.