DETROIT – The November survey from the Conference Board predicts a 3.9 percent jump in wage costs for companies in 2022, compared to 3 percent reported in April – the highest rate increase since 2008.

Indeed, the swell in compensation expectations for next year reflects rising wages for new hires and inflation.

Salary increase budget refers to the pool of money an organization dedicates to salary increases for the coming year. Here are the key findings:

  1. Average 2021 actual total salary increase budgets jumped from 2.6 percent in the April 2021 survey to 3.0 percent in the November 2021 survey.
  2. Projections for 2022 salary increase budgets jumped almost a full percentage point from 3.0 in April to 3.9 in November.
  3. Growth in wages for new hires and accelerating inflation are the main causes of the jump in salary increase budgets. The November Salary Increase Budget Survey shows that almost half of respondents (46 percent) said that the increase in wages of new hires played a factor in salary increase budget estimates for 2022, and 39 percent said that increased inflation played a factor.

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