Hewitt says more companies are using variable pay to augment base salaries. According to a Watson Wyatt study, some top execs received pay boosts of nearly 21 percent
By Garry Kranz Comments 0 | Recommend 0
Calibrating the Pay Scale: With Labor Day behind us, research on 2008 pay trends
is already appearing. According to Hewitt Associates, a Lincolnshire,
Illinois-based HR consulting firm, base salaries for exempt employees at
U.S.-based companies will nudge upward by about 3.8 percent, virtually the same
as this year (3.7 percent). Companies interested in retaining their top
performers, however, are expected to rely more greatly on variable pay to
augment base rates. Hewitt says that could boost actual pay raises more than 12
percent. As a percentage of payrolls in 2007, variable pay was 11.6 percent. In
other research, Watson Wyatt Data Services says total cash compensation for
surveyed executives grew 9.3 percent this year. Yet some top executives received
compensation packages that exceeded that average by as much as 25 percent. In
particular, decision-makers who engineered mergers or acquisitions were rewarded
with average increases approaching 21 percent.
Workforce Management contributing editor Garry Kranz is based in Richmond, Virginia. E-mail editors@workforce.com to comment.
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