We expect you’re not surprised to hear the overall news: Salary increases for exempt employees and wage increases for nonexempt workers, year over year, are considerably—sometimes startlingly—less in the 2011 Nonexempt Compensation Survey and 2011 Exempt Compensation Survey than they were in last year's surveys.
For a Limited Time receive a
FREE Compensation Market Analysis Report! Find out how much you should be paying to attract and retain the best applicants and employees, with
customized information for your industry, location, and job.
Get Your Report Now!For example, in this year’s surveys among benchmark jobs, only 2 exempt positions, those of Purchasing Manager and Training & Development Specialist, gained median increases of more than 3% (3.36% and 3.30%, respectively). And, only 5 of the exempt benchmark positions posted median salary increases between 2% and 3%, while only 5 nonexempt benchmark jobs did so.
An especially disturbing trend among all 38 exempt benchmark positions is that the average median salary increase for 2011 was only 1.43%, compared with 3.51% in 2010 and 5.24% in 2009. The industries with the highest average salary increases (but still small) included mining, utilities, management of companies and enterprises, and fabricated metal processing.
Among nonexempt jobs, the largest median wage percentage increase went to Executive Secretary & Administrative Assistant, at 3.83%, with Computer Support Specialist coming in second at 3.80%, and Waiter & Waitress in third place at 3.04%. But keep in mind that waitstaff have the lowest hourly earnings of all benchmark jobs and that their increase in 2011 was dwarfed by last year’s 9.58% jump. The benchmark jobs with the next highest increases were Telecommunications Line Installer & Repairer (2.95%), Secretary (2.24%), and Word Processor & Typist (1.89%). As happened last year, healthcare positions continued to post lower increases than in the past—just 0.87% for Licensed Practical Nurse, 0.58% for Medical Secretary, and 0.47% for Occupational Health & Safety Technician.
For the full results of BLR’s 2011 Survey of Exempt Compensation and 2011 Survey of Nonexempt Compensation, visit Surveys on Compensation.BLR.com.
For the full results of BLR’s 2011 Survey of Exempt Compensation and 2011 Survey of Nonexempt Compensation, visit Surveys on Compensation.BLR.com.