COMP NEWS – More than 40% of employees didn’t receive a raise last year, according to a new study from BambooHR.

BambooHR, the industry’s leading cloud-hosted human resource platform where everything works together, released a new study of 1,500 U.S. adults examining worker sentiment around compensation and benefits. The study finds that two in five salaried employees (41%) didn’t receive raises in the past year, up from 33% in 2022. Those who did received a 25% smaller raise, underscoring the economy’s impact on employee pay.

“While an uncertain job market might be keeping employees at a company, it’s clear that morale is low,” says Anita Grantham, head of HR at BambooHR. “For the second year in a row, our study uncovered that employees feel they aren’t getting paid enough. It’s crucial for employers to understand these trends to focus on next steps to improve employee engagement and overall retention.”

Although only 21% of salaried workers changed employers in the last year compared to 34% in 2022 (a 38% decrease), 73% of employees admit they would consider leaving their current job for a higher paycheck. It would take a 13.3% increase in pay to tempt an employee away from their current position, down from 16.1% in 2022.

• More than a quarter (27%) of women express frustration with their compensation (up from 16% in 2022) compared to 15% of men (up from 11% in 2022).
• More than half (58%) of employees are content or happy with their current financial compensation.
• Almost half (48%) have thought about leaving their company in the last six months to find better compensation, up from 41% who felt the same way in 2022.

Surveyed employees commented on their views on salary transparency, which also showed that employees have different definitions of the term.

Salary transparency means a host of different things to employees.

• More than half (59%) of employees believe salary transparency means clearly communicating the complete compensation package to everyone.
• Half (50%) view salary transparency as the disclosure of salary ranges for every role within the company.
• More than a quarter (32%) of employees believe that true salary transparency involves disclosing the exact salary for each role, not just a salary range, leaving no room for ambiguity or speculation.

When it comes to salaries, younger generations are more likely to be transparency, and as baby boomers begin to retire, this trend will only become more prevalent in the workplace.

• More than three-quarters (76%) of Gen Z employees have disclosed their salary to a coworker, compared to 60% of millennials, 39% of Gen X, and 30% of boomers.
• Nearly three-quarters (69%) of employees feel comfortable discussing their salary with an employer, with 52% having already engaged in such conversations.

To read more about employees who received salary raises (and those who didn’t) in 2023, click here.

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