62 Percent of U.S. Workers Saw No Pay Increase in 2018

Sixty two percent of employed Americans report neither getting a pay raise in their current job nor attaining a better paying job in the past 12 months, according to a new survey by Bankrate.com (https://www.bankrate.com/personal-finance/financial-security-december-2018/).

Yet, of all working Americans, only 25 percent have any intention of looking for a new job in the next year with Younger Millennials (ages 18-27) being the most likely age group to look for that new job.

“Career advancement often involves a willingness to change jobs, particularly in the early career years,” said Greg McBride, CFA, chief financial analyst for Bankrate.com. “Yet only one-third of all Millennials intend to capitalize on this tight labor market and look for a new job in the next 12 months.”

In a separate recent report, research from the Economic Policy Institute shows that when accounting form inflation and cost of living changes, employee pay has shrunk over the past 40 years.

The vast majority of working Americans, 91%, have the same or greater confidence in the job market than one year ago – including 31% with increased confidence and 60% that stayed about the same. This is all despite the fact that the percentage of working Americans who received pay raises and/or attained better paying jobs in 2018 is down from 2017 overall:

% of Working Americans Who:	2017	2018
Received a pay raise	38%	32%
Got a better paying job	18%	11%
Did not receive a pay raise or get a better paying job	52%	62%

*5% of workers received both a pay raise in their current job and a better paying job in the past 12 months

The likelihood of receiving a pay raise, better paying job, or both is higher among higher income households. In fact, the majority of households with income below $50k/year report getting neither a pay raise nor a new better paying job, including 76% of the lowest income households.

So it should come as no surprise that the lowest income households have the highest likelihood of looking for a new job in the next 12 months, at 42%, compared to just 17% of the highest income households. Yet, the lowest income households were more likely to have decreased confidence in the job market over the past 12 months.

“Pay raises and landing a higher paying job continue to be the exception rather than the rule, even in a strong economy with low unemployment,” added McBride. “Households seeking income growth are increasingly finding it ‘the old fashioned way – they earn it’ to quote an old TV commercial, usually by working more hours rather than being paid more per hour.”

Full-time employees are almost twice as likely to get pay raises and/or better paying jobs than part-time workers.

Older Baby Boomers (ages 64-72) had the highest incidence of reporting neither a pay raise or a better paying job, at 79%. Younger Millennials (ages 18-27) were the most likely age group to get a promotion or new job responsibilities that resulted in a pay raise.

This study was conducted for Bankrate via telephone by SSRS on its Omnibus survey platform. The SSRS Omnibus is a national, weekly, dual-frame bilingual telephone survey. Interviews were conducted from November 20-25, 2018 among a sample of 1,000 respondents in English (961) and Spanish (39). Telephone interviews were conducted by landline (402) and cell phone (598, including 369 without a landline phone). The margin of error for total respondents is +/-3.61% at the 95% confidence level. All SSRS Omnibus data are weighted to represent the target population.

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