Amidst today’s increasingly competitive landscape to attract and retain top talent, the stakes to your business couldn’t be any higher.
If you’re leading the HR or compensation function, you’re surely facing challenges in coming up with the right approach to salary planning for your company. On one hand, you hear from employees and line management about how small budgets that barely keep up with inflation are straining employees’ will. On the other hand, business leaders face the fire from investors about keeping costs in check. Striking a balance between those competing interests can be difficult.
To resolve this struggle and provide you with the confidence you need to make decisions about your salary increase budget needs, you need to have the latest data and insights at your fingertips. The 2019-2020 Salary Increase Survey from Aon — with a U.S.-focus as well as a global-focus — is now open to participants, and all participants who provide a complete and accurate submission will receive a complimentary copy of the results.
Highlights from 2018
Let’s quickly recap some key trends and insights from last year to get a better understanding of the budget landscape most companies have entered into in 2019.
Aon’s 2018-2019 U.S. Salary Increase Survey reflected a strong economic outlook for most industries, with significant demand for goods and services and robust job creation. Base pay budgets were projected to increase to 3.1% in 2019, which is the highest salary increase since the 2008-2009 recession. Variable pay (such as incentive or sign-on bonuses and special recognition awards), on the other hand, were expected to drop to 12.1% – the largest decline since 2010. On the whole, this was expected to bring total cash compensation down from 15.5% to 15.2%.
Since organizations appeared unwilling to increase their overall labor expenses, we observed a small shift in pay mix from variable spending to fixed spending as a response to the hot job market. Meanwhile, average 2018 merit increases for all companies in our survey included 4.3% for top performers, 2.7% for average performers, and 0.8% for low performers.
Looking at our 2018-2019 Global Salary Increase Survey, we saw that salary increases granted in 2018 were higher than 2017 inflation in 77% of the countries, resulting in an increase in employee purchasing power.
Figure 1
Salary Increase Trends Globally in 2018
Source: 2018-2019 Global Salary Increase Survey
Next Steps
The 2019-2020 Salary Increase Survey from Aon is now open for participation. The survey is an in-depth exploration of global pay trends and turnover rates across multiple industries. This year’s survey covers a wide range of topics, including:
- Salary increase budgets, including overall, general and merit plans
- Salary structure changes
- Promotional increases
- The prevalence of variable pay awards
- Turnover trends
All participants who provide a complete and accurate submission will receive a complimentary copy of the results, and additional custom data cuts will be available for purchase. The deadline to participate in the U.S. Salary Increase Survey is July 1, 2019 and the deadline to participate in the Global Salary Increase Survey is July 12, 2019.
To learn more about how to participate in the U.S. Salary Increase Survey and/or the Global Salary Increase Survey, please click here to get started or contact us now.
