Pushes for pay increases continue as more and more states have considered legislation to raise their minimum wages, including Vermont, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina and Rhode Island, to varying results.
Ranstad US released a report last month detailing American workers' perception of their wages of the Randstad 2020 U.S. Compensation Insights survey. About 1,200 employed adults participate in the survey, which Dynata conducted in August and September 2019 on behalf of Randstad.
“We’re seeing a few shifts in the way workers think about compensation. While salary has always been top of mind, today people are getting increasingly more strategic and assertive in their approach to climbing the pay scale — especially younger generations,” said Jim Link, chief human resources officer, Randstad North America in a press release regarding the findings. “This reality, coupled with a tight job market, requires employers to be more aware of their compensation offerings in order to stay competitive. A first step for employers is to determine where they stand in comparison to industry salary standards. There are a number of resources available to do this, including our recently released Randstad US 2020 Salary Guide.”
The report's findings include the following:
- 74% of millennials expect a pay raise every year in order to stay at their companies, versus 62 percent of boomers and 66 percent overall.
- 60% of employees wish their employers would make pay information for each role in the company available across the company.
- 51% percent of women report they’re considering leaving their jobs because they believe they’re underpaid.
- 72% percent of women and 59% of men say they would make a lateral move to a different company just to receive a salary jump they wouldn’t get if they stayed at their current company.
- 76% of all surveyed employees say their compensation is sufficient to make them stay in their current roles for the next 12 months, down from 83% in 2018.
- 79% of all surveyed employees say it's important to them that their company awards performance-based raises, rather than solely for cost-of-living adjustments.
