Another name for a merit raise?

Caroliso

Don't laugh, but we are struggling with what to call our raises.

Our system uses a formula to compute what we call a "standard" raise. This is something which most staff are awarded if they have a good solid year's performance. Staff who perform exceptionally during the year can be recommended for a "non-standard" raise.

You can imagine why folks aren't excited about the "standard" raise. I know it's not all about what it's called (if people's "standard" raises were 15% there would probably be zero complaining) but there has got to be better terminology. Any ideas? We've considered "merit" raise for standard but really, they are both merit raises.

Susan in La

If you do an annual performance planning and reviews you could tie the merit increase to the rating the person gets. For instance, a rating of 1 or 2, poor or needs improvement, merits no raise. A rating of 3, meets expections, gets the lowest raise, a 4 or exceeds requirements, more than the 3, and a 5 or outstanding is the highest raise. They all are merit increases, but the level is tied to the person's performance rating. You can set a percentage of increase for each of the levels that get an increase.

sonny

We call ours general increase (usually equates to COLA) and merit increase which is determined by the score on ones evaluation. I don't know that general sounds a lot better than standard.

swbpr

If it is a "standard" raise based on a good solid year's performance -- what about "time-on-job" increase...

sonny

Then it sounds more like a longevity increase. . . at least to me. .

NaeNae55

I looked up the synonyms for merit. Among them were value and credit. I liked 'exceptional' best. Give everyone a standard merit raise, but give a few an exceptional merit raise.

Good luck!

Nae

sonny

I vote for Nae

stilldazed

We call all of increases 'merit,' and we don't have an option for the extra increase for outstanding performance.

Many of our workers call our raises inadequately, cheap, piddly, hardly worth the effort . . .. Times are tough.

I checked 'exceptional' in the dictionary, found it to mean 'not normal,' so how about 'abnormal?' That should make your staff feel better about 'standard.'

HR Hat

We have two types of raises: "Standard Merit Raise" and "Step-up Raise".

"Standard" in our case implies typical raise that most folks receive. We use "Merit" because it almost always is more than cost-of-living raise. For those that receive more than the standard merit raise, it is a "step-up" raise.

I realize this won't work for all, but it works fine for us.