The Pearl Meyer survey shows 23% of firms indicating they plan to increase pay again, and another 8% of firms saying they may yet make that decision. "I don't want to say it's unheard of, but it's very rare," Toman said. With inflation continuing to pinch consumers and job opportunities widespread, Pearl Meyer says the mid-year pay raises reflect a labor market in which many workers still have the upper hand.
Still, she thinks many companies will opt for the salary increases, even if bonuses are, in her view, more cost-effective and more appealing to many employees with the lump sum cash. Pearl Meyer is advising companies to not necessarily offer these mid-year increases in the form of salary, but rather retention bonuses or one-time merit bonuses to avoid the "year over year compounded increase" issue, Toman said. Firms are not going to increase pay to a level of current inflation which they don't expect to remain that elevated, because once they put it into an annual raise, it becomes difficult to claw it back in future years even if inflation does come down. These factors have led companies including Microsoft to say that their pay budget is going up by a lot.įrom the compensation committee standpoint, pay can't keep pace with inflation when it is running over 8%. "The mid-career level ones really felt the crunch," Toman said, because wages were adjusted more aggressively at lower levels and "executives are always taken care of," she said. A separate CNBC|Momentive Workforce Survey found that middle-income workers, in particular, are being squeezed by higher prices at this point, and two-thirds of workers overall saying that pay is not keeping pace with inflation. But inflation is weighing on the sentiment, too, with 74% of workers saying their current wages will not be enough to keep up with rising costs. A survey recently conducted by CNBC showed 69% of workers expressing satisfaction with their current wages and 80% with recent raises, according to the CNBC All-America Workforce Survey. "These are the highest increases in a long time," she said.
"Companies put their money where their mouth was," said Rebecca Toman, vice president of the survey business unit at Pearl Meyer. The compensation firm found that total increases were over 4% for two-thirds of survey participants, and over 6% for a quarter of organizations. ICYMI: here are 10 ways to make sure you avoid holiday hell this summer.The annual increases, which came in at 4.8% year over year, were ahead of what firms had forecast when Pearl Meyer last polled them at the end of 2021 - the expectation had been for annual salary increases of 4.2%, which still would have been significantly higher than a standard 3%-3.5% cost of living adjustment. Back in March the Met Office issued a warning saying that, thanks to climate change, bouts of hot weather are becoming much more likely.Ī lot of us could be in for a sweaty weekend, so you know what to do: lather up in sunscreen, avoid direct sun in the heat of the day, keep hydrated – and enjoy the balmy weather! What’s more, this could be just one of many heatwaves to hit the UK this summer. The threshold for much of the south-east is 27C, so a heatwave could certainly be on the cards. The Met Office defines a heatwave as ‘at least three consecutive days with daily maximum temperatures meeting or exceeding the heatwave temperature threshold’. So could this weekend’s weather actually amount to a heatwave? Well, maybe. In any case, it’ll most likely be the warmest day of 2022 so far and beat the current record of 27.5C, which was recorded at Heathrow on May 17. While 32C is the official forecast, the Met Office has warned that temperatures could even reach the mid-30s. The end of this week will almost certainly see the hottest day of the year in the UK so far, with temperatures set to hit 32C in areas of south-east England on Friday. Brits, now’s the time to get some ice lollies in the freezer.