Christine Perkett, of Marshfield, Mass., who runs a public relations firm from her home, sits on her front porch, Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. The recession and its aftermath made many small businesses reluctant to give raises. The raises at Christine Perkett's public relations firm are about 2 percent lower than they were before the recession. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Raises are no longer a sure thing at Warner Communications ? staffers at the public relations firm who were virtually assured of an annual salary bump before the recession have to work a lot harder to get an increase.
"Everyone needs to make a difference. It was always said, but never enforced until right now," says Carin Warner, owner of the company based in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass.
Yearly pay raises that workers at small businesses used to count on have become a casualty of the weak economy. They?re increasingly based on performance ? not just an employee?s performance, but the entire company?s. Raises at many businesses are also smaller than they were before the recession began five years ago. And some employers are using rewards other than annual raises to compensate workers.
Warner expects all of her 15 employees ? even the newest ones ? to bring in new business in addition to doing an exemplary job taking care of current clients. Raises are also based on the company?s revenue and profit.
"You have to look at an individual and at the overall agency?s success. It?s a mathematical formula that we must do," Warner says.
Warner is part of a growing trend of small businesses abandoning the idea that they must give their workers raises every year.
"The days of the traditional merit increases and cost of living increases seem, at least for now, to be behind us," says Carrie Cherveny, vice president of employment practices for AlphaStaff, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based company that provides companies with human resources services such as payroll, benefits administration and hiring assistance. "What we are seeing is compensation tied to corporate performance ? you?ll get a raise or bonus if we do well."
Whether they?ll do well is the big question for many small-business owners. Jobs and incomes are growing, but not fast enough to make them more confident that a healthy economy will give their sales a boost. The most recent monthly jobs report showed that U.S. employers hired 155,000 people in December, less than the 175,000 or more that would get economists excited.
Managers at Ontraport, a company that makes marketing software for businesses, are willing to give big raises ? 10 percent or more ? but they?re not guaranteed.
"We don?t have a process in place where we just give automatic raises to everyone every year," says Landon Ray, CEO of the company based in Santa Barbara, Calif.
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The company did well and kept growing during the recession. But Ray says it still needs to be careful. The biggest raises at Ontraport are intended to attract and keep top talent in the competitive high-tech industry, Ray says. Employees whose work is disappointing will find themselves left out when raises are given at mid-year.
Raises at Mercury Labs depend on how well the St. Louis-based video production and marketing company does. Salaries were frozen for more than a year from 2008-09, and owner Angie Lawing isn?t sure about raises for this year because revenue slid 25 percent in 2012.
But Lawing has given her employees a chance to win a bonus by finding new business leads. One staffer got a $3,000 bonus for a lead that turned into a $30,000 contract. Lawing created the bonuses during the 2008 salary freeze.
"It?s a response to some employees who were very disappointed at not having the ability to have an official raise," Lawing says. "We asked ourselves, ?how do we keep them and give them other incentives???"
Workers at Tasty Catering get a raise only if the Glenview, Ill., corporate caterer reaches its quarterly profit goals.
"This has become a team thing," CEO Tom Walter says. "It?s not a discretionary thing were people cuddle up to the boss to see if they can get a raise."
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