Stronger Economy Means Higher Salaries.

Canadian employers anticipate an average increase to their salary budget of 3.7% for 2001, according to a recent survey. "Hot" skills recruiting and retention and employee communication were identified as the most important human resources issues by Canadian organizations.

By employment category, the expected average base salary increase ranged from 3.1% for non-unionized hourly staff and 3.5% for management and professionals to 3.8% for executives. The largest salary increases are anticipated in the mining, oil and gas, and IT sectors where professionals and technical staff can expect average salary increases of 4.7%. The lowest increases are anticipated in the food and paper product sectors where professional and technical staff can anticipate average increases varying between 2.6% and 2.8%.

Survey results are based on data collected from 327 organizations representing 747,000 employees across Canada. Participants in Ontario and Alberta reported the highest anticipated increases, with average rates of 3.6% for management and professional employees and 3.4% for technical and administrative staff. Those in the Atlantic provinces predicted the lowest increases with average rates of 3.2% and 3.0% respectively.

In a strong economy, actual salary increases are often higher than anticipated. Overall, the actual increases for 2000 were higher than what was expected at the end of last year by a margin of 0.3% to 0.6% depending on the job category. Accordingly, if the economy continues to perform well, the actual salary increases for the year 2001 may very well exceed the above forecast by up to 0.5%.