For the third consecutive year in a row, the average salary increase for bank officers and other non-financial leaders reached 2.5 percent, according to CPA Practice Advisor.
The 2013 Comprehensive Financial Institutions Compensation Survey conducted by accounting and consulting firm Crowe Horwath found actual salary gains aligned with market forecasted increases as it compiled responses from 293 financial institutions.
Collecting salary benchmarks for 228 job positions, the study reported that of these jobs, residential mortgage loan officers saw the biggest four-year increase of their average total compensation. Including base salary and incentive bonus pay, their compensation increase for this period totaled 35.6 percent. While mortgage loan officers experienced an average base salary deduction of 4.5 percent from last year, their average total compensation increased 7.7 percent, indicating that their incentive compensation most likely made up for this loss.
Overall pay-raise budgets recovered from a record low four years ago to 2.9 percent, Business Management Daily reported. The WorldatWork 2013-2014 Salary Budget Survey indicated that top-performing employees made more than their co-workers with raises averaging 4.6 percent.
“Salary budgets continue to improve, albeit slowly,” said Kerry Chou, senior compensation practice leader for WorldatWork. “This data adds to the recently released jobs numbers painting an economic picture that shows the U.S. economy is not gaining much momentum. Organizations continue to be challenged to find meaningful ways beyond 3% raises to reward talent.”
Since it can be a challenge for many employers to evaluate whether employee work merits a pay raise, they can use incentive compensation software as an accurate performance indicator for employees. This software can not only streamline sales incentive management and analyze crucial performance metrics but also allow managers to customize its system to alert them when employees hit these benchmarks.
