Cost of Living Adjustment
JACHR1979
20 Posts
I need to make a Cost of Living Adjustment to one of our employee's pay ladders. Does anyone have any information on how I can figure out the COLA percentage? I'm stumped as to how much to raise this employee's pay scale. It is a highly unique position so I haven't been able to find a comparison on Salary.com or any other payroll site.
Does anyone know what the COLA % is for 2008?
Comments
the government tracks the cost of living through the consumer price index which is what is used to make the adjustments you mention. there is a national number, regional numbers, and numbers for a bunch of local markets. so you have some choices to make. you can learn about the consumer price index and retrieve data at http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpiovrvw.htm
[quote user="IT HR"]Are you a privately held company? If so, it is really up to the company to decide what type of increase they want to give. If you are looking at COLA numbers there are a lot of different numbers to look at. On the federal side it was announced last week that federal employees will see 3.9%, Civil Service retirement system will see 5.8%, Federal Govt retirement system will see a 4.8%, social security is 5.8%. Then you need to look at what is going on in your state, your area, and your industry. Some industries are seeing salaries continue to climb and some are staying stagnet. Have you gone out and researched what the market rate is for that pa rticular position? [/quote]
We are a public company. Could you tell me where you found the federal percentage rates? I've been looking, but haven't had any luck. I have researched the market rate, but the problem I am running into is that there isn't another position that adequately compares. This is a unique position created when we launched a new product that is unique to us. Because the product is different that what is currently in the market, it requires a position that doesn't have a market comparison. This is why I am planning on making a cost of living adjustment to the pay ladder.
For our other, more general positions, I usually use market rate and make any adjustments necessary to keep the positions competitive.
I almost put the links in the last email. Now I am trying to find them again.
Here are a couple:
http://www.fedsmith.com/article/1742/
http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/colafacts.htm
http://www.federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3774238
http://www.myfederalretirement.com/public/284.cfm
Just found this law firm article on the 2009 COLA rates . . .http://www.mcguirewoods.com/news-resources/item.asp?item=3534
A COLA will put a few of our employees over their maximum pay range. What do most companies do...ignore the max rate, not give the COL, or pay a lump sum? Any input would be great...thanks!
Maybe it is time to adjust your max pay range? Have you done any research to make sure your pay range is still appropriate for the market conditions and the work being done?
Are you doing COL on top of an increase at performance review time?
Thanks everyone for your assistance. I went with the federal rate of 3.9%.