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Education Reimbursement Practices on the Rise
According to a June 2005 survey, almost two-thirds of firms have a formal educational reimbursement plan. Typically about 66 percent of companies reimburse up to 100 percent of all tuition costs depending upon the grade the employee receives. For example, an employee can receive 100 percent reimbursement if they earn an “A”, 80 percent for a “B” and 70 percent for a “C”. In 2003, 75 percent of companies paid for only job-related courses whereas, in 2005, that figure dropped 10 percent points to 65 percent. A possible explication for this drop maybe that more companies are betting that by increasing their employee-friendly benefit package their retention rate of quality employees will increase as well. Employee retention and training costs are a problem being faced by the employer community. According to Wilson Beach, Chairman of Abigail Abbott Staffing Services, the average length of employment is only 2.6 years. By offering non job-related courses employers are offering more incentives for an employee to stay longer with that particular company.
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Trends in Health Insurance Plans: Health Plans Have Dropped to Single Digit Increases
According to the latest survey conducted by the Kaiser Family foundation, in 2005 U.S. employers faced increases to their premium, averaging 9.2% - a decrease of two-percent points from the 11.2% average reported in 2004. Although 2005 will be the first year where single-digit increases were experienced by U.S. employers since 2000, premiums have increased by 73%.
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Wage Increases in California Will Climb to a 4-Year High in 2006
Although wage increases were marginal this year, California’s Salary outlook is surprisingly good according to an annual survey conducted by the Employers Group. For the first time in four years, projected salary increases are predicted to be higher than the previous year. The projected average merit increase will move from 3.69 in 2005 to 3.83 in 2006. These figures include hourly, exempt, and non-executive managers. Total increases, defined as merit plus general increases and other forms of pay (bonuses, etc.) will be as follows: Hourly non-clerical 3.8; Hourly Clerical 3.99; Exempt 4.15; Executives 4.6.
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Wage/Hourly Trends: Hourly Wages Show Slow Recovery Increases
According EG’s 2005 Regional Wage (Nonexempt) Survey, hourly earnings have been slowly increasing since dropping after 2003. The nationwide average wage increase has gone from 2.2 percent in 2004 to 2.7 percent this year, while in California wages have increased from 1.3% in 2004 to 1.9%. This is a good sign that companies are willing to pay more to employees since dropping off after 2003. It shows that businesses are improving since the recession and, hopefully, continue to do so in the coming years
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HR Practices & Benefits Survey: Companies Prefer Standard 40-hour Work Week
Most of the firms that participated in the January edition of the HR Practices and Benefits Survey indicated that they preferred “normal” workweeks rather than alternative work schedules. According to the data, 93.5% of the participating firms selected to have five days in the regular full-time workweek for production, service and maintenance employees while exempt and office, clerical, and technical employees had five days for 98% of the total firms. The majority of the firms indicated that the number of hours in a workweek was 40 hours. Production, service, and maintenance employees had 40 hours in a workweek for 93.3% of the participating firms while the percentage for exempt and office, clerical, and technical employees was lower with 87.5% and 89.9%, respectively. Firms favored these days and hours rather than the alternative of having compressed workweeks.
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