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Canadian employees will face continued decline in salary increases this year

February 23, 2009  By CNW Group Ltd.


Feb. 23, 2009 – Canadian organizations continue to lower their projected 2009 salary increases for non-unionized employees in response to the economic recession, according to the findings of an update of the Conference Board's Compensation Planning Outlook survey.

Canadian organizations continue to lower their projected 2009 salary increases for non-unionized employees in response to the economic recession, according to the findings of an update of the Conference Board's Compensation Planning Outlook survey.

"The deteriorating financial and economic conditions are having an adverse effect on salary increases," said Prem Benimadhu, Vice-President, Governance and Human Resource Management. "Projected average salary increases fell by a full percentage point in just a few months. This downward trend will persist as the year goes on."

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Projected average increases already fell from 3.9 per cent among respondents to the summer 2008 Compensation Planning Outlook survey, to 2.9 per cent in the update conducted in December and January. Total inflation is forecast to be 0.7 per cent in 2009, so workers can still expect to receive increases that will outpace inflation.

The findings of the updated Compensation Planning Outlook are based on the responses of 220 predominantly large- and medium-sized organizations. At the time the survey was taken, 57 per cent of respondents were working with recommended or preliminary salary budgets, while 43 per cent had finalized their budgets.


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