{"id":7215,"date":"2024-11-01T15:18:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T15:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brightmine.com\/us\/?post_type=resources&#038;p=7215"},"modified":"2025-03-20T00:09:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T00:09:00","slug":"2025-salary-budget-projections","status":"publish","type":"resources","link":"https:\/\/www.brightmine.com\/us\/resources\/total-rewards\/employee-compensation\/pay-trends\/2025-salary-budget-projections\/","title":{"rendered":"Salary budget 2025: Understanding the fallout of inflation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-cover alignfull\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);min-height:250px;aspect-ratio:unset;\"><span aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-cover__background has-background-dim-0 has-background-dim\"><\/span><img decoding=\"sync\" class=\"wp-block-cover__image-background wp-image-5877\" alt=\"Brightmine background\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.brightmine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/19110611\/Hero_Header_HP_Background_Desktop.webp\" style=\"object-position:100% 51%\" data-object-fit=\"cover\" data-object-position=\"100% 51%\" \/><div class=\"wp-block-cover__inner-container has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-cover-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-d4010286 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-right:0;padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-left:0\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-cararra-gray-background-color has-background has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-f90d3be4 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"border-radius:25px;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)\">\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading has-primary-purple-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e3c908d06153f7b177fb003983dbf78e\">Salary budget 2025: Understanding the fallout of inflation<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-primary-gray-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-6db077438499f35de5f1df7cfa75d474\">Inflation has slowed, but 2025 salary budget projections reveal its lasting impact on pay decisions. Review the latest Brightmine salary budget data and learn how inflation may impact your pay increase decisions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full has-custom-border\"><img decoding=\"sync\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.brightmine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/04\/11141301\/resource_page_banner_brightmine.webp\" alt=\"Brightmine resources graphic\" class=\"wp-image-4642\" style=\"border-radius:0px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-primary-white-background-color has-background has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-7854952d wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)\">\n<p>Published: November 1, 2024 | by <strong>Victoria Kelleher<\/strong>, Lead Survey Specialist at Brightmine<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On September 18th, 2024, the Federal Reserve announced a long anticipated interest rate cut \u2014 a clear indicator that inflation has dropped to target levels. However, inflation rates surged beyond the pace of wage growth in 2021 and 2022, with many companies holding wages stagnant or even cutting them due to the uncertain economic landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Employers often <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brightmine.com\/us\/resources\/blogs\/how-to-conduct-salary-benchmarking\/\">benchmark<\/a> against other companies when making decisions about how to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brightmine.com\/us\/solutions\/total-rewards-compensation\/\">adjust the salary budget<\/a> for an upcoming year. However, after such an unusual disruption in the pattern of inflation, employers may need to consider the implications of decisions they have made in recent years to decide whether it is appropriate follow the majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-global-padding is-content-justification-left is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-63055ddb wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-cararra-gray-background-color has-background is-vertical is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-79d58207 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\" style=\"border-bottom-left-radius:25px;border-bottom-right-radius:25px;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:clamp(15.747px, 0.984rem + ((1vw - 3.2px) * 1.131), 24px);\">In this resource:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul style=\"padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li style=\"font-size:clamp(14px, 0.875rem + ((1vw - 3.2px) * 0.548), 18px);line-height:1.7\"><a href=\"#defining-salary-benchmarking\">2025 salary budget projections<\/a>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li style=\"font-size:clamp(14px, 0.875rem + ((1vw - 3.2px) * 0.548), 18px);line-height:1.7\"><a href=\"#benefits-of-salary-benchmarking\">Chart 1: Actual salary budget growth versus inflation, 2021 to 2024<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li style=\"font-size:clamp(14px, 0.875rem + ((1vw - 3.2px) * 0.548), 18px);line-height:1.7\"><a href=\"#chart-effective-of-aligning-raises-with-inflation\">Chart 2: The effect of alignment of raises with inflation<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li style=\"font-size:clamp(14px, 0.875rem + ((1vw - 3.2px) * 0.548), 18px);line-height:1.7\"><a href=\"#takeaway\">Takeaway<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2025-salary-budget-projections\">2025 salary budget projections<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A recent pulse survey from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brightmine.com\/us\/about\/\">Brightmine<\/a>, formerly XpertHR, found that the average projected change for total salary budgets from 2024 to 2025 is an increase of 3.8%. This is well over the current level of inflation, which recent readings place at 2.4%. However, retrospective data shows a period in which inflation exceeded the average salary budget increase significantly (see Chart 1).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"salary-budget-growth-vs-inflation-2021-2024\">Chart 1: Actual salary budget growth versus inflation, 2021 to 2024<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-rich is-provider-infogram wp-block-embed-infogram\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"infogram-embed\" data-id=\"_\/MnA3DydHX4LT0wk5mNeF\" data-type=\"interactive\" data-title=\"US-Salary Budget-C&amp;amp;I-Nov2024-1\"><\/div><script>!function(e,n,i,s){var d=\"InfogramEmbeds\";var o=e.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];if(window[d]&&window[d].initialized)window[d].process&&window[d].process();else if(!e.getElementById(i)){var r=e.createElement(n);r.async=1,r.id=i,r.src=s,o.parentNode.insertBefore(r,o)}}(document,\"script\",\"infogram-async\",\"https:\/\/e.infogram.com\/js\/dist\/embed-loader-min.js\");<\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Even though inflation rose to unprecedented levels in 2021 and 2022, our data shows that few companies increased salary budget proportionally for these years. Most companies either kept the magnitude of raises the same as previous years (38%) or even cut raises altogether (17%). Among those that issued a steeper increase for raises, a slim minority met or exceeded the rate of inflation, while about a third distributed raises that were slightly higher than normal but still below the inflation rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most companies took a cautious approach in these years to avoid making rash decisions that might backfire in an uncertain economic climate. Though this may have been the right call at the time, employers should not lose sight of the way employees may have experienced misalignment in these factors if there has not yet been a correction. In a high inflationary environment, even a standard raise of 3% may be experienced by an employee as a pay cut when that money does not seem to go as far as it would have in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Companies that were highly conservative about budget changes in recent years may be experiencing cascading effects on business outcomes today if they have not been able to bring wages back in alignment with the cost of living. Our recent data shows those that gave employees higher-than-usual raises during years with high inflation are more likely to report recent improvement in key performance indicators like turnover and engagement when compared with those that cut raises in these years (see Chart 2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"chart-effective-of-aligning-raises-with-inflation\">Chart 2: The effect of alignment of raises with inflation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-infogram wp-block-embed-infogram\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"infogram-embed\" data-id=\"_\/DqxzFFMoJS6KxvUEi3Jg\" data-type=\"interactive\" data-title=\"US-Salary Budget-C&amp;amp;I-Nov2024-Chart 2\"><\/div><script>!function(e,n,i,s){var d=\"InfogramEmbeds\";var o=e.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];if(window[d]&&window[d].initialized)window[d].process&&window[d].process();else if(!e.getElementById(i)){var r=e.createElement(n);r.async=1,r.id=i,r.src=s,o.parentNode.insertBefore(r,o)}}(document,\"script\",\"infogram-async\",\"https:\/\/e.infogram.com\/js\/dist\/embed-loader-min.js\");<\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Takeaway<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When salary budget decisions are made, employers often factor in projections for next year to ensure they are aligned with competitors. However, our data shows that today&#8217;s trends in turnover and engagement may be rooted in decisions made around salary budget in recent years, which can differ from company to company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Employers that took a highly conservative stance in response to inflation may need to recalibrate between wages and the cost of living to come closer into alignment. An audit of compensation compared to current market rates may help them to identify and correct lagging salaries, avoiding the relatively higher cost of recovering from an uptrend in turnover or disengagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, not every company is in the position to boost salaries across the board. Those with budget constraints should prioritize employees who are at the highest risk of leaving, which tend to be those who live paycheck-to-paycheck. These employees can be identified by cross evaluating salaries with the cost of living by state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alternatively, employers may be able to get a sense of financial well-being across the workplace by surveying employees about factors like financial stress and salary satisfaction. If money is tight, prioritizing these employees to bring their compensation more in line with the cost of living will be the most stabilizing approach, even if it requires making sacrifices for compensation increases at higher levels of the organization.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-alabaster-gray-background-color has-background has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-primary-white-background-color has-background has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-bbb7e64f wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center has-large-font-size\">Start your free trial today<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-medium-font-size\">Register today to gain free 7-day access to the Brightmine HR &amp; Compliance Center and stay up to date, compliant and save valuable time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-a89b3969 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-primary-white-color has-secondary-blue-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/hrcenter.us.brightmine.com\/freetrial-login\/?loggedInUrl=%2Ffreetrial%2Fnew-user%2F&amp;registrationUrl=%2Ffreetrial%2Fnew-user%2F&amp;intcmp=hrcc-resources|cta-2-col|light|banner|hrcenterus-freetrial|take-a-free-trial\" style=\"border-radius:26px\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Take a free trial<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-primary-white-background-color has-background has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-fcdab8bb wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"border-radius:25px;margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-large-font-size\">About the author<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100px\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-thumbnail is-resized is-style-rounded\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.brightmine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/09\/18080027\/victoria-kelleher-150x150.webp\" alt=\"Victoria Kelleher, Lead Survey Specialist at Brightmine\" class=\"wp-image-6362\" style=\"object-fit:cover;width:100px;height:100px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.brightmine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/09\/18080027\/victoria-kelleher-150x150.webp 150w, https:\/\/cdn.brightmine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/09\/18080027\/victoria-kelleher-300x300.webp 300w, https:\/\/cdn.brightmine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/09\/18080027\/victoria-kelleher-768x768.webp 768w, https:\/\/cdn.brightmine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/09\/18080027\/victoria-kelleher.webp 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Victoria Kelleher, SHRM-CP<\/strong><br>Lead Survey Specialist, Brightmine<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Victoria is a former Brightmine as a Lead Survey Specialist.  She joined Brightmine with more than 5 years of research experience in academia. In order to collect data that can be used to generate actionable insights, Victoria designs and fields surveys on a wide range of HR-related topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Before she joined Brightmine, Victoria worked as a Graduate Assistant at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. She led multiple undergraduate-level Research Methods courses as an instructor. While pursuing her Master of Arts in research psychology, Victoria conducted independent survey research on emotion regulation and mental health. Victoria also holds a Bachelor of Science in biology and a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Connect with Victoria on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/victoria-kelleher\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Inflation has slowed, but 2025 salary budget projections reveal its lasting impact on pay decisions. Review the latest Brightmine salary budget data and learn how inflation may impact your pay increase decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":7781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"resources","categories":[56],"tags":[],"topic":[27,66],"class_list":["post-7215","resources","type-resources","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c-and-i","topic-benchmarking","topic-pay-trends"],"_lnrs_read_more":"","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Salary budget 2025: Understanding the fallout of inflation | Brightmine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"2025 salary budget projections reveal the lasting impact of inflation on pay decisions. 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