Health Care Orgs' Pay Increase Budgets Slightly Down

However, this decrease is less than the drops seen in 2009 and 2010, in which pay increase budgets fell around half of a percent each year, according to a report on the survey by Business and Legal Reports (BLR). Pay increase budgets are projected to remain relatively stable in 2012 at 2.5%.  

BLR noted that companies use pay increase budgets to make a number of different increases to their employees’ salaries. CompData found that nearly 67% of health care organizations are allocating a portion of their budget towards merit increases. More than 33% are making market adjustments to their salaries, while 15.8% are including promotional increases. Only 10.4% of survey respondents are utilizing their pay increase budget for cost of living increases.   

The rate at which these increases are used varies widely by industry. Merit increases are being offered at 94.7% of home care organizations. Physician clinics follow at 81.6%, with behavioral health care facilities reporting them at 71.4%. Hospitals are offering merit increases at a rate of 65.8%, while critical access hospitals are reporting them the least at 50%.   

In addition, according to BLR, the survey showed the average merit increase budget reported in 2011 was 2.1%, with health care organizations projecting the same for 2012.  

Compensation Data’s 2011 Healthcare Survey contains data on 250 industry-specific job titles and more than 350 benchmark titles ranging from entry-level to top executives. Data was collected from more than 1,100 health care employers reporting on nearly 5,300 locations across the country. The results provide a comprehensive summary of pay data, benefit information and pay practices with an effective date of January 1, 2011.