Kansas City, Kan.— The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported the unemployment rate dropped to just over 8 percent as of April 2012. Though the unemployment rate seems to be on a slow yet steady decline, pay increase budgets are idling. The Compdata Surveys 2012 Compensation Data Healthcare survey results show pay increase budgets have remained relatively stable at 2.5 percent, compared to 2.4 percent reported in 2011 and 2.5 percent in 2010. Pay increase budgets are projected to remain the same in 2013 as well.
“Although pay increase budgets have stagnated in the healthcare industry, the demand for healthcare workers continues to rapidly increase,” said Amy Kaminski, director of marketing for Compdata Surveys. “As a result, a larger portion of healthcare organizations’ pay increase budgets may be geared towards retaining employees in jobs for which there is a critical need.”
Pay increase budgets are used to make many different types of adjustments to employees’ salaries. Seventy-four percent of healthcare organizations report using pay increase budgets for merit increases. Nearly 37 percent make market adjustments, while 18.7 percent use pay increase budgets for promotional increases. Only 11.1 percent of organizations utilize pay increase budgets to implement cost of living adjustments.
Pay increase budgets vary slightly by industry as critical access hospitals report the highest budget at 2.8 percent. Physician clinics and rehabilitation facilities reported pay increase budgets of 2.5 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively. Behavioral health facilities reported the lowest pay increase budget in 2012, 2.3 percent. Healthcare organizations who reported making adjustments to their pay ranges this year have reported an average adjustment of 1.8 percent, with the same projected for 2013.
About the Survey
Compensation Data 2012 Healthcare contains data on nearly 250 industry-specific job titles and 400 benchmark titles ranging from entry-level to top executives. Data was collected from more than 8,100 healthcare providers across the country. The results provide a comprehensive summary of pay data, benefit information and pay practices with an effective date of January 1, 2012.
Compdata Surveys is the nation’s leading compensation and benefits survey data provider. Thousands of U.S. organizations provide data each year ensuring the reliability of our results. Compdata Surveys has been providing comprehensive data at affordable prices to organizations from coast to coast since 1988.
