American Society of Employers (ASE) releases 2019 compensation survey results

Livonia, Mich. – May 29, 2019 – The American Society of Employers (ASE), an employer association serving Michigan employers for over 116 years, released the organization’s 2019 Compensation Survey results at its Compensation and Benefits Conference last week. It’s the 67th year that ASE has published the annual survey.  The findings were released by Mary E. Corrado, president and CEO of ASE. 

“This year’s survey results showed a continuation of the modest wage gains we have seen for the last several years.  However, despite the lack of volatility in wages there remains challenges.  Digging deeper into the data does reveal that jobs that require technical skills are commanding higher rates of increases than others.  While that is not unexpected, it does require employers to proactively engage in ongoing market assessments,” stated Corrado.  “Unless something derails the current economic expansion, we expect pressures on wage growth to accelerate given the tightening labor supply,” added Corrado.

2019 Survey Demographics
A total of 335 companies, 57% of them located in the metro Detroit region, responded to the survey, which was distributed to human resource professionals via an online survey in January 2019. Nearly 40% of the respondents are classified as automotive suppliers, and 474 jobs were reported on.  83% of the organizations that responded have 1-500 employees.

2019 ASE Compensation Survey Highlights:
•    Actual wage increases, based on a constant sample of companies, increased 2.7% year over year.
•    Merit increase budgets, what a company budgets for performance-based pay increases, averaged 3%.  This is consistent with 2018 merit budgets. 
•    Organizations offering variable or incentive pay showed a slight increase to 83% in 2019 compared to 81% in 2018.
•    Several fields witnessed average wage increases of 3.5% and higher, with the Engineering Support, Human Resources, Inspection / Quality and Supply Chain/Logistics job families each showing increases of 3.7% or higher.  
•    Product Development Engineering and Electrical Engineering job groups average wage increases were 3.8% and 3.6% respectively.  

To obtain a copy of the 2019 Compensation Survey results, contact Kevin Marrs, Vice President at ASE, 248-223-8025 or kmarrs@aseonline.org.