As reported in Crain’s Cleveland Business in September of 2012, Northeast Ohio employers both gave and are projecting giving an average of a 3% increase across all job categories in 2012 and 2013, respectively. But how are these increases determined and what do they mean in terms of an overall investment by the organizations offering raises?

While the ERC Salary & Wage Adjustment Survey itself does not report on these specifics, it does specify that that this 3% increase accounts for any pay adjustment given during a 12 month period and could include any adjustments from general across-the-board or cost-of-living adjustments to merit based raises. Some additional insights can be drawn from another ERC survey published in early summer of 2012, i.e., the 2012 Pay Adjustment & Incentives Practices Survey. According to this survey, merit based increases are by far the most common method of determining increases here in Northeast Ohio, approximately 80% of respondents. Of those organizations providing merit based increases, a wide majority do so on an annual basis regardless of organizational size or industry type. Interestingly, cost-of-living raises were the least popular type of adjustment, coming in at just under 7%.

Based on ERC’s historical data trends for the Pay Adjustment & Incentive Practices survey, this strong preference for merit based pay adjustments is far from surprising. However, a steady decrease in cost-of-living pay adjustments over the past several years accompanied by a corresponding increase in the frequency of merit-based raises offers a clear illustration of the continued move towards pay-for-performance.