Canadian organizations continue to lower their projected 2009 salary
increases for non-unionized employees in response to the economic
recession, according to the findings of an update of the Conference
Board's Compensation Planning Outlook survey.
"The deteriorating financial and economic conditions are having an
adverse effect on salary increases," said Prem Benimadhu,
Vice-President, Governance and Human Resource Management. "Projected
average salary increases fell by a full percentage point in just a few
months. This downward trend will persist as the year goes on."
Projected average increases already fell from 3.9 per cent among
respondents to the summer 2008 Compensation Planning Outlook survey, to
2.9 per cent in the update conducted in December and January. Total
inflation is forecast to be 0.7 per cent in 2009, so workers can still
expect to receive increases that will outpace inflation.
The findings of the updated Compensation Planning Outlook are based on
the responses of 220 predominantly large- and medium-sized
organizations. At the time the survey was taken, 57 per cent of
respondents were working with recommended or preliminary salary
budgets, while 43 per cent had finalized their budgets.
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