Southborough, Mass. — Dec. 20

Employers continue to forecast modest salary increase budgets for 2013 and plan to target limited compensation dollars more strategically to employees who most affect organizational performance, according to a recent online survey by compensation consultancy Pearl Meyer & Partners.

A total of 150 compensation and human resources practitioners participated in the November online poll, conducted during a joint Webinar by Pearl Meyer & Partners and WorldatWork titled “Doing More with Less: Maximizing Limited Compensation Resources in 2013.”

Nearly three-quarters of respondents expect no change in their organization’s 2013 salary increase budget, with the rest almost evenly split between projections of higher and lower budgets.

In another finding, 65 percent of survey participants differentiate competitive pay positioning among their broad-based employee populations, compared with about half who did so in 2011.

In a sign of the expanding use of performance-based variable pay vehicles, one-fifth of respondents plan to expand eligibility and/or increase award levels for programs such as incentives and bonuses.

Source: Pearl Meyer & Partners