The Wage Battle
There is no confusion over the past trend in wages
It was a sharp upturn caused by the battle to attract workers in a tight labor market, topped off by the “Great Resignation”. Job switchers saw their wages rise by 7.7%, compared to 5.5% for those who stayed put.
That was followed by unprecedented price inflation putting pressure on wages to keep up with the cost of living. It was still challenging enough to find the best talent that employers needed to be known for paying wages that met this reality.
What’s confusing now is the appearance of a more settled labor market every time you get a statistical report, but no real settling of wages. Beneath the overall numbers are widely varying trends by industry, with some showing labor shortages and others experiencing layoffs. It’s getting harder than ever to find wage information for your hiring or job search.
Our clients frequently ask for input on appropriate wage information on appropriate pay rates for their openings. While our payroll may be only a small percentage of the area’s total, the office positions we fill are representative of the diversity in Elkhart and St. Joseph counties. You can keep yourself competitive by using the wage data we’ve collected and shared here for reference as you consider job offers you receive or make to candidates.
A few things we’ve noticed and want you to keep in mind as you consider the wage issue and the numbers we have available to share:
It’s typical for a client to give us a starting wage range for a new hire, so the data we collect tends toward starting wages.
In every category we tracked, pay rates are even higher now than in 2021/2022, which was considered the height of the pandemic and Great Resignation.
Year-to-date in 2024, wages are trending a bit higher in every category other than in HR, data entry and administrative work. Could it be that AI is having an impact on those job functions as predicted? We think it’s much too early to say in our area, but it’s interesting…
We would like to end by pointing out that in over half of all categories, Personnel Partners’ average wage is higher than the BLS reported wage. If you still thought there was a disadvantage to working as a staffing employee, think again! We select our clients with care, and we insist that the openings placed with us come with competitive wages. If numbers don’t lie, then these numbers might be saying there is actually an advantage to the combination of client-Personnel Partners-job seeker.