When employees are worried about money, they're less productive, less healthy, and distracted, explains Louis Falzetti, who works with Dave Ramsey of radio and TV fame, as executive vice president at the Ramsey organization. Falzetti says that financial stress actually costs between $750 and $2,000 a year per employee. The situation is dire, but employers are in a position to help by providing for personal financial education.
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) prohibits employers from instituting work rules that explicitly restrict the ability of employees to have discussions, among themselves or with union representatives, about compensation or working conditions. If an employer allows its employees to discuss compensation with each other but, for a valid business reason having nothing to do with unions, prohibits employees from discussing compensation issues with "other parties," has the employer violated the NLRA?
The average planned merit increase reported in BLR's 2009 Pay Budget Survey is 3.71%, slightly higher than the actual average merit increase of 3.67% reported for 2008. Participating employers were also asked whether
they would award general salary increases in 2009, and the average planned by those who responded is 3.47%, compared with 3.40% given in 2008. More than 1,600 organizations participated in the survey, which was conducted in June and July of 2008.
Nonexempt employees experienced a varied amount of growth in their hourly wages over the last year, according to Business & Legal Reports? 2008 Survey of Nonexempt Compensation. Forty-four of the forty-five nonexempt benchmarked jobs included in this year?s survey exhibited an increase in median wages over 2007.
The growth in wages for exempt employees held steady throughout 2008, according to BLR's 2008 Survey of Exempt Compensation. Employers surveyed nationwide reported increases in exempt salaries for 32 of the 44 benchmarked exempt positions surveyed.
