2019 Compensation Best Practices Report for Industries

January 7, 2019

The annual Compensation Best Practices Report (CBPR) is now broken down into individual industry categories. These reports are built on the same robust datasets as our overall CPBR, Canadian edition, enterprise edition and small business edition. However, in these factsheets, we drill down into individual industries.

Using data from more than 7,000 respondents across various industries, geographies and organizational sizes, we detail compensation practices in base pay, variable pay, benefits, strategy, grades and ranges and the links among compensation, culture, performance and engagement. Here are some highlights:

Agencies and Consultancies are responsible for creating, communicating and delivering value to their customers. It is an aggressive sector. Thus, agencies and consultancies are more likely to have competitive jobs (hard to fill because they’re in higher demand) but are less likely to pay more for them.
Customer Service and Retail businesses are focused on the process of selling consumer goods or services to customers. Customer service is provided to customers before, during and after a purchase. Because of the great variety of roles and levels in the industry, determining appropriate pay for individual positions — or even for pay grades and ranges — can be quite the challenge.
Education institutions are paramount in the transfer of knowledge from educator to student. They create environments that engender intellectual activity, pique curiosity and stimulate discovery. In today’s swiftly changing tech-driven environment, educational institutions are competing to attract the attention and loyalty of students and faculty alike. Thirty-nine percent of education organizations have changed their pay strategy as a result of employee engagement feedback.
Energy and Utility companies face ongoing demand for talented engineers. Accordingly, more than 75 percent of Energy and Utility companies offer variable pay. PayScale has the world’s largest database of salary information for workers in the energy and utilities sectors, including mechanical engineers, petroleum engineers and project engineers, as well as geologists and more.
Engineering and Science organizations often need to fill positions related to chemical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and more. Companies in this sector use more discretionary bonuses than other organizations, especially hiring and spot bonuses.
Healthcare organizations provide a broad range of services, from chronic disease prevention to routine care. Employers include entities such as medical and dental offices, kidney dialysis centers and home health care services. PayScale provides salary data for nurses, health aides, physician assistants, nutritionists and myriad other roles common in the health, senior living and assisted living sector. Organizations in this field are more likely to perform annual performance reviews compared to other sectors.
The Manufacturing sector, much like any other, is subject to market fluctuations for both hourly and salaried employees. Some common job titles include: plant managers, manufacturing engineers, production supervisors, quality assurance supervisors and manufacturing workers, among other related positions. Interestingly, half of all manufacturing companies use multiple geography-based pay ranges.
Nonprofit organizations are dedicated to promoting a particular social cause or promoting a mission. With limited budgets, it can be particularly challenging for HR professionals at nonprofits to determine what to offer new employees in terms of compensation, as well as what to pay existing employees. Consequently, retention is the top reason nonprofit organizations plan to change their compensation strategy.
Tech companies face incredible challenges keeping up with compensation changes for skilled tech employees. In order to recruit and retain these talented individuals, it’s essential to offer competitive pay. Organizations in the tech industry are much more likely to reward top performers with bigger base pay increases.