Kansas City, Kan.— The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported the unemployment rate dropped slightly to 8.1 percent as of August 2012. Though the unemployment rate appears to have stagnated over the past several months, pay increase budgets are beginning to show signs of improvement. The 2012 Compensation Data Hospitality survey results reported pay increase budgets at 2.7 percent, reflecting an increase from 2.4 percent reported in 2011 and 1.9 percent reported in 2010. Pay increase budgets are projected to increase to 2.9 percent in 2013.
Pay increase budgets are consistent throughout the industry as resorts report a 2012 budget at 2.8 percent, while casinos, hotels and restaurants reflect pay increase budgets of 2.7 percent. Hospitality organizations who reported making adjustments to their pay ranges this year have reported an average adjustment of 1.4 percent, with the same projected for 2013.
“For the past few years, pay increase budgets for many industries have stagnated or experienced only lukewarm increases,” said Amy Kaminski, director of marketing for Compdata Surveys. “This will likely continue to be the trend until employers begin to feel economically comfortable.”
Pay increase budgets are used to make many different types of adjustments to employees’ salaries. Sixty-five percent of hospitality organizations report using pay increase budgets for merit increases. More than a third use pay increase budgets for market adjustments, while 29.5 percent offer promotional increases. Twenty-three percent of organizations utilize pay increase budgets to implement cost of living adjustments.
About the Survey
Compensation Data 2012 Hospitality provides a comprehensive summary of pay data, benefits information and pay practices with an effective date of March 1, 2012. More than 100 industry-specific job titles and 400 benchmark titles were surveyed ranging from entry-level to top executives, with data collected from more than 3,600 hospitality organizations across the country.
Compdata Surveys has been providing comprehensive data at affordable prices to organizations from coast to coast since 1988 and is the nation’s leading compensation and benefits survey data provider. Thousands of organizations provide data in each of our eight industry specific surveys each year, ensuring the reliability of our results. For more information about the compensation and benefits surveys, contact Michelle Willis at (800) 300-9570.
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