New Surveys Crush Hopes for a Raise

Posted on October 11, 2005

If you feel like you need a raise you are not alone. Salary increase still have not recovered from the recession and new surveys don't see salary increases in the near future. One depressing study project salaries to barley exceed the rate of inflation.

BNA's Wage Trend Indicator is predicting only a slight rise in third-quarter pay. A recent survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting is projecting average salaries to exceed inflation by just 1 percent in 2006.

Some employers are also holding vacant positions open longer than normal which also sounds like a bad economic sign. In a good economy they would feel the need to hire to stay competitive with their competitors.

Peter Cappelli, director of the Center for Human Resources at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School told U.S. News, "Companies feel under such cost squeezes that they are looking at other alternatives than raising wages."