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Subscribe to RSSThe recession has been hardest on the millions of workers who lost their jobs, but that doesn’t mean it’s been easy on those who have kept working.
Now some reprieve may be coming.
Three-quarters of the companies that instituted pay freezes in the past 18 months have either lifted them or plan to by the end of the year, according to a new survey of 239 employers done by Buck Consultants, a Xerox subsidiary.
The survey also found that 70 to 80 percent of employees can expect a pay raise this year, and that figure should reach around 90 percent next year.
That’s a big improvement over 2009, when 50 to 60 percent of employees received raises.
But don’t start dreaming about a new house or car yet. The survey found that salary increases will average 2.8 percent in 2011, up from from an average 2.5 percent this year and 1.8 percent in 2009.
“Employees shouldn’t expect big gains in pay until there is a sustained economic recovery and significant improvement in the unemployment rate,” Tom Burke, principal at Buck Consultants, said in a release.
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I will have to see the raise before i believe it. I work for a large company that generally doesn't give raises in good times or bad.
except to the executives of course.
Raise?!?!?!?!? I'm a high school math teacher and I had to take an 8.5% salary decrease this year. I don't know about anyone else, but making 3500 dollars less this year is going to hurt!
I work for a private company. My healthcare was cut costing me $4000 more and my pay was cut by $11,000 as was the case with the others. It was question of take it or leave.
At least you whiners have jobs.
and just how long will the government go before restoring cost of living increses for Social Security recipients, most of whom are elderly and it is their only source of income ? And retired military and disbled veterans haven't had an increase in a while either. Is this how we treat our elderly, who paid into the system for years, and the men and women who fought and were injured protecting this country ?
well said, stillwithoutajob
When the inflation rate is high enough to trigger the automatic raise that was included in the law passed in the 1970's.
you don't need a cost of living increase when there's no inflation. that's exactly fair.
The factors used to determine inflation are geared for the general public. Gas prices, for instance, went down big-time. However, seniors pay a larger percent of their income on medical insurance and medicines, which have all gone up a ridiculous percentage. So, no, it's not fair. It's a flawed process that generalizes something that needs specifics.
cleverly the gov doesn't include things like food and energy in their COLA. They say the numbers are too volatile to be salient. I don't know about any of you, but typically I find eating and paying for heat and gasoline are a couple of my biggest expenses outside of my mortgage. And I certainly require them to live. Just another gift to big business. Squeeze the poor and the middle class and let anything that might rein in excess in corporations like say, gov pressure, go unchecked. Yahoo. I love the 21st Century. Idiocracy here we come!!!
I feel you pain. I was out of work for a year, I just started working two months ago. My hourly pay is three dollars an hour lower than it was before. It is very hard to pay my bills now!!!
It isn't communism for a CEO to look and HIS/HER company, and determine whether S/HE needs to keep a 6-figure+ salary or keep the 3rd floor. That's independent of government intervention, and it would be helpful if some executives remember that. Watching out for your company is what you get paid to do, and if you're not doing that, then why should you get a raise, bonus, extensive stock options, and perks?
The CEO's people are pi$$ed off over are making salaries plus bonuses that have over 9 figures a year...for running a company into the ground...while they lay off thousands, lower wages and benefits, increase the individual workload, while they get more perks and more time off...
You're right, cball, and I'm including everyone who was supposed to watch out for the company and its employees. You are MORE than correct in that there were several middle managers who were more concerned with flirting at happy hours than they were with demonstrating leadership. Of course, those people don't want anyone to know who they are, but I still contend that it was the CEO's job to take them out if they were ineffective.
Unless you are an executive.
dave,
So, why are you just sitting around? Become an executive!!!!
Because some of us "respect" our pay and prefer to stay off our knees!
I'm wondering why the senate and congress has gotten such a hugh raise??? Things must be much better up there on the hill. Politicians suck.
They get those raises because people keep voting them back into office...send a clear message, vote them OUT of office
Vote them out of office? So they can be replace by other millionaire politicians who are exactly the same? Every election for the last 15 years I've voted for the person who would do the least damage, not do the best job. Perhaps I'm too cynical, but I believe that honest men/women of integrity aren't in politics anymore...only corporate machines of greed and self-interest, so voting them out of office hasn't been a solution to me.
even when they're voted out they get a paycheck anyway
as a disabled Vet I will not get a cost of living increase in my compensation for the second straight year. It is amazing how after my cataract surgery my eyes can not see the [FOR] any politician presently in office name on my absentee ballot.
my BIG raise this year was five cents per hour and then the next week my health insurance went up by $30 a week.
and the bosses can't figure out why we're disgruntled.
Hey, at least you got a monetary raise. I got a stupid frozen turkey.
You should be on social security where no raises are in sight and in fact, a negative will take place as medicare premiums will raise. Love the way government works!!!
People get these measley raises, but have no fear, the cost of living has gone up three times fold, and the banks wonder why people can't afford there homes.
Thats ok the people that are handing out the raises are making 100,000 a year, that make it ok.
The cost of living has gone up 3 times fold over what period of time? The last 20 years? Certainly not in the last 3 or 4.
Exaggeration just makes you look silly.
And THEY can not figure out why we need a cost of living increase! THEY will get their increase, we will get the shaft! SPQR!
You need to change your name from grumpy to happy. Things will improve if you change your outlook/attitude........
They keep raising things, that is like giving someone cancer, instead of eating your boby it is eating your livelyhood away. Don't worry the democrats have it all work out with Obama care coming in Janurary.
Obama care is a heck of a lot better than what we had before!!!
I remember my first raise, ever. It shoved me into the next tax bracket by just a few dollars (apparently I was on the verge of "moving up" prior to the raise) and made my net $2 and change less than I was bringing home without it. I walked down to accounting and told them I didn't want it and to take it back LOL. Sadly, they would not.
When you're 16 and working for crap anyway, it makes it difficult to stay motivated.
If you want to take home more money today opt out of Socialist Security. You will never collect but if you never pay in you give yourself a raise. Anyone who is in their 20's will never collect anything anyway so why pi$$ your money away? If I could have opted out of Socialist Security when I was young I would have.
"pi$$ing" your money away is what you call supporting our elderly? What should we do with you when & if you reach your eighties?
And how, pray tell, do you propose to opt-out of "Socialist Security" as you put it? Last time I checked, the Internal Revenue Code makes paying it mandatory unless you meet one of a very specific set of criteria. If you really want to opt out, step away from your keyboard and join the Amish.
"But you'd probably think it bites, Living in an Amish paradise."-Weird Al
A tiny raise is better than a pink slip.
And RetiredRN - you were already bitter at age 16, I can't imagine what you are like now. Try the Serenity Prayer, or the secular version of it - "Change what you can, accept what you can't, and try to recognize the difference"
What you are saying here amounts to this. Here is some chicken S$#t now go make some chicken salad out of it! I don't know about you but i am tired of eating chicken S%^t!!!!
I only received a 1.7% raise this year, but I cannot complain as I received a 30% raise last year. Being a geophysicist pays well in the long haul.
All of the SENIORS had better get out and vote==unless you want to live like sheep in your own country for you can bet OBAMA will do nothing for you.
wow now that's a uniquely stupid comment.
Obama is the only one who MIGHT do something for you. the conservatives would like to abolish SS and get rid of medicare because 'everyone should be responsible for themselves' Good luck to you if that happens granny. If you've been a housewife your entire life and your husband squandered his cash then died, you're up a creek living in a gutter. Go right on ahead. I'll take care of my mother. No skin off my nose. Everyone may not be in my position however.
Your sense of entitlement is amazing. You are willing to take from my children for the benefit of yourself. There was no inflation, therefore your SS check will not increase. I am aware that medicare costs went up but I cannot cry too much when little was done during your working years to procure a sustainable income in retirement, now you are stuck living the life you don't want. I am very particular to save now so that I do not live off the, usually incapable, government later
my self, i had more 'discretionary' income BEFORE st. ronny started his term and it's gone down ever since . i have lived thru and witnessed all the benifits repubs have given the blue collar people. and regardless of what the saleried think and claim, it is the blue collar who MAKE things.
Ordinarily my place of employment gives .25 per hour, per year, raises as a matter of general policy. Looking at it one way, at least we still received raises the past two years. Looking at it another, it was enough to pay for one additional tank of gas per month to get back and forth to work.
If inflation has not caused the need for a COL increase, what would? Trash pickup has increased twice this year, electricity is up, cable is up, food is up, necessities are up; even property tax went up due to the method of calculation.
With home values decreasing property taxes should be also. Some areas are seeing home values decrease by 10's of thousand per month due to the increasing numbers of home in foreclosure in the surrounding neighborhood. So this isn't just a case of the harm hitting only those who can no longer afford to make their mortgage payments. The fallout affects are wide ranging.
None the less, the longer the cost of necessities continues to rise while incomes remain basically flat, the more homes we will be sliding into the realm of foreclosures. Some are saying the recession is over. Over where?
The government could just start printing money and give everyone a raise.
Well I hate to break it to you, but that is what they have done for some time now...our 'money' is not backed by anything like gold and silver anymore, it is backed only with the faith we have in the government to sustain the illusion that the currency has real value.
Look at the price of gold, and WHO is, has, and will be hoarding such precious metals...it isn't the poor and middle-class...should we be worried?
If you believe that is currently no inflation, you are deceived. The government has altered the manner in which it calculates inflation. See for yourself: http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts
Raise? They HAVE to be kidding. My husband received a PAYCUT 1.5 years ago, a major health insurance increase last year, and THEY ARE CUTTING HIS VACATION TIME next year!
After an 18 month wage freeze, we are getting a 2% raise. Whoo hoo!
Oh yea, insurance premiums are going up 7% in Jan. Pension plan is frozen. Taxes will be going up in Jan. This is not staying even, unless you count that I still have a job. Mgmt sees it that way.
We had a saying in the military and it applies here BOHICA. Bend over here it comes again!
YOU ARE SO RIGHT!! We need to vote for All our public officials to take a pay cut across the board to balance the budget. And while we are at it... lets cut all their pensions as well. Give em a taste of what it's like to be an American!
The income disparity in this country is completely out of whack. There are people in my company that have gone as long as SEVEN years without a single raise, yet the owners wife just got a brand new Caddilac Escalade. That car costs as much as I make in a year.