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Survey Reveals Employers Consistently Cautious on Compensation: Advancing Employees Will Be Challenging


WEBWIRE

TORONTO.– Aon Consulting Canada released the findings of its 2009 pay increase survey and the word of the day is “conservative.”

Conducted from late June to August and with input from almost 400 participants, the survey revealed that organizations plan to adjust their salary structures upwards by a conservative 2% and award on average a 2.5% increase in base salaries. Both the low digits and the less than 1% difference between the two figures indicate a wait-and-see attitude. This is supported by the noticeable lack of discrepancy in pay policies across industries, provinces, and job categories – everyone is displaying a uniformly cautious approach.

“For employers,” says Scott Bunker, senior vice president Human Capital at Aon Consulting, “the 0.5% difference between the structure uplift and actual increase budgets offers a very small margin to work with. That margin is the room they have to reward and move people up through the structure – employers will be faced with difficult decisions if they want to reward their best talent with attractive raises.”

Despite the caution shown by employers, early indications of recovery are emerging. One notable such sign is the number of organizations that expect to lift the blanket pay freezes they held for 2009. For 2010 only 20%, one in five organizations in Canada, plans a blanket pay freeze, a significant drop from 2009’s 33%, or one in three.

Predictably, Alberta rates have cooled off from previous years. The province’s labour market downturn, a direct result of dropping oil prices, has brought Alberta’s once-soaring pay increases in line with those of the rest of the country.

In addition to pay increase forecasts, the survey reviewed cost containment initiatives, global compensation priorities and regional salary differentials. Aon Consulting will be offering a series of presentations to discuss comprehensive survey results by job category, industry and region in five major cities across Canada below:

Quebec: Oct 7, 2009
Montreal: Oct 8, 2009
Toronto: Oct 14, 2009
Winnipeg: Oct 27, 2009
Edmonton: Oct 28, 2009



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