The bad news: They are only giving out about half of what inflation took away last year (4.6% vs 8.6%). Apparently, the executives each need a new yacht, and those things are getting pricey. The worse news: Loyal company employees will not be seeing much in the way of raises. The biggest raises will go to new hires. So, if you are under 50, now is a good time to jump ship and work somewhere else. If you are over 50, you need to decide if the vacation time you've accumulated and the company contributions to your retirement are worth getting paid a stagnating (or shrinking, relative to inflation) salary. Seems that U.S. companies do not value experience very much. Employers plan largest raises since 2007 — is it enough? I expect this trend to reverse itself in a year or two after employees start jumping ship en masse to get better pay elsewhere. The current recession will have to subside before this gets critical.
Our company has been going through this for the last 18 months. Lots of factors leading to attrition and under staffing. Competing company's offering large sign-on bonuses and pay raises. My company being slow to increase pay of existing employees, encouraging them to look at other company's (well, preventing them from looking around). Employee's hired within last 12 years no longer get pension, making them free agents. Leadership shrugging their shoulders with a it-is-what-is-is attitude. what is interesting to me is the number of 50+ year old employees I see leaving for new jobs. I work for a multi-billion dollar defense company. The amount of sign-on bonuses and pay increases does catch one's eye.
It's been decades since we were close to double-digit inflation. Circumstances are a little different this time around. And it only makes sense for companies to try to retain people, compared to 30-40 years ago. People have more responsibilities as companies run leaner, software and systems are more specialized, and jobs in general are more complex. It takes a long time to train someone new, and there is no guarantee that they will "get it". There is another issue that some believe (after Biden started claiming this) is that the inflation is temporary. Some companies seem to be handling this by giving large annual bonuses along with the small raises. Many companies are making good profits this year, so they can afford to do this. If inflation goes away, then the bonuses come down and everything returns to normal.
If you are in the tech industry you better stay put. One of the startups I interviewed with 2 months ago just had layoffs
