AGAWAM, Mass. – The Employers Association of the Northeast, or EANE, released a new survey showing average pay during 2016 grew across several sectors while competition for talent increased among competitors.
“We see that employers have needed to be strategic in allocating their budgetary dollars, especially when it comes to directing those dollars toward more ‘vulnerable’ jobs,” said Mark Adams, director of human relations solutions at EANE. “These jobs may have been subjected to past wage freezes or impacted by wage compression due to rising minimum-wage rates throughout the region.”
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More than 200 companies from throughout Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts participate in the annual survey, with the largest participation from employers with 100 or fewer employees.
EANE, a nonprofit trade group, represents 820 employers from throughout the Northeast.
It provided the following analysis from its survey:
Increased Pay
Average pay in non-exempt-level positions has risen from 2016 levels, particularly in such job families as education, engineering, facilities, finance/banking, production and hospitality. While the rise in pay outpaced the general growth in the CPI from its 2016 levels, the pay growth is still being outpaced by skyrocketing benefit costs that have taxed employer operating budgets and have thus limited what they can provide. (The CPI increased by 2.3 percent on average when compared to the 2016 levels during the reporting period.)
Talent Wars
Despite these rising operational costs, employers also face the countervailing pressure and risk of losing skilled workers to competitors who are challenged by talent shortages amidst a backdrop of very low unemployment. (Unemployment rates declined from 2016 throughout the southern New England region in the range of 1.2 to 2 percent, depending upon the specific metropolitan area.)
