Report: Actual Wage Increases 2.6 Percent in Michigan, Merit Increase Budgets Average 3 Percent

Livonia’s ASE, an employer association providing people-management information and services to Michigan employers, released its 2020 Compensation Survey results. This is the 68th year ASE has published the survey.
1462
ASE compensation survey graphic
ASE released its 2020 Compensation Survey results. // Image courtesy of ASE

Livonia’s ASE, an employer association providing people-management information and services to Michigan employers, released its 2020 Compensation Survey results. This is the 68th year ASE has published the survey.

According to the survey, actual wage increases, based on a constant sample of companies, increased 2.6 percent year-over-year. The constant sample represents companies that reported data in 2019 and 2020.

Merit increase budgets, or what a company budgets for performance-based pay increases, averaged 3 percent. This is consistent with 2019 merit budgets.

Organizations offering variable or incentive pay showed a decrease to 80 percent in 2020, down from 83 percent in 2019.

“Our data, collected directly from local employers, is critical in helping employers make informed decisions about wages,” says Mary E. Corrado, president and CEO of ASE. “This information, like many of our benchmarking studies, will be vital as we look to navigate uncertain and volatile economic conditions due to the current pandemic.”

Legal, facilities management, scheduling, administrative, sales and marketing, and information systems are all fields that witnessed average wage increases of 3 percent and higher.

Design engineering and product development engineering job groups’ average wage increases were 3.6 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively.

Of 319 companies that responded, 57 percent were located in metro Detroit. Just over 40 percent of the respondents were classified as automotive suppliers, and 481 jobs were reported on. About 82 percent of the organizations that responded have one-500 employees. The survey was distributed to human resource professionals in January 2020.

ASE is a nonprofit membership organization that works to strengthen its members’ human resources departments.