Workers get underwhelming news o pay
Moderate raises planned for fourth straight year
By: Medora Lee
USA Today
..... Workers will likely fine it hard to make ends meet again inn 2027 because companies are planning to hold the line on pay raises for a fourth straight year, a recent survey shows.
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On average, employers plan salary increases of 3.2% on merit and total salary increases of 3.5% in 2027, according to the Mercer QuickPluse US Compensation Planning Survey of 1,001 U.S. organizations. Total salary increases include merit, promotions, cost-of-living, and other adjustments. These increases are about the same as the actual increases in the past three years, it said.
..... For Americans, these relatively flat increases are making it harder to keep up with the elevated inflation of the past several years.
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In July, [2026] annual inflation rose 3.4% basically swallowing the average pay raise and potentially making it harder for Americans to get ahead.
..... "If inflation went up after wages went up, everyone would love inflation," said Michael Ashton, managing principal at Enduring Investments LLC. "But we all know that inflation sucks, since prices go up and then, if we're lucky, the boss man will give us a cost-of-living adjustment. It does not happen proactively."
..... Economic uncertainly is keeping companies sidelined when it comes to pay increases, the survey said. More than half -57% - of companies said they expected the economy to have at least a moderate impact on compensation decisions.
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"Economic uncertainly is top of mind for employers this year, [2026] and compensation dollars are tight," said Tauseef Rahman, workplace reward solutions leader for consulting firm Marsh.
..... Not all hope is lost, though. Most company budgets aren't yet set in stone, the survey showed.
..... As of July [2026] 85% of organization said their 2027 salary budget were still preliminary with data collection underway, while 8% had proposed budgets to leadership and only 5% had already secured approval the survey said.
..... But "if projections hold, and historically they have, this will mark four consecutive years of moderate compensation increases," Rahman said.