Chicago Tribune: Pay Isn't Everything

By: Carol Kleiman
From: Chicago Tribune – 2002

Here's news from the salary and benefits front: High tech, low salaries: Remember the astronomical salaries high- tech professionals used to make? Well, not anymore. "The down economy is impacting even the most wanted IT [information technology] professionals . . . who are receiving lower pay increases compared to previous years," concludes a 2002 study by Hewitt Associates, a global outsourcing and consulting firm based in Lincolnshire. The firm surveyed 164 U.S. companies representing some 40,000 IT employees. Professionals in the tech field, Hewitt found, got an increase of only 4 percent, compared to 7.5 percent in 2001.

In another survey of 361 IT professionals in the health-care industry by Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society and Hersher Associates, 62 percent of respondents listed salary as the top factor in job satisfaction. The gap between expectations and reality might be called a technical "glitch."

The zen of salary:"If pay is seen as non-competitive, unfair or simply insufficient to sustain life, it will be a large dissatisfier [for employees]," according to Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan- Evans, authors of "Love 'Em or Lose 'Em" (Berrett-Koehler, $18.95). "But here's the rub: While it can be a huge dissatisfier if inadequate, it won't keep people [from leaving] who are unhappy in other key areas." That's why managers should "be sure pay is competitive and fair--and then focus on what else you can do to keep your talent," the authors added.

Vacation rights: What can you do when your boss threatens to count it as a full vacation day if you leave work early--even by 15 minutes? John Morris, a Chicago financial manager and former human resource professional, says docking a day of vacation sounds like a "blatant violation of the Fair Labor Standard Act and, if substantiated, could result in serious fines [for the employer] and recovery of back pay."

If your boss is wreaking havoc with your vacation rights, Morris urges workers to contact an employment lawyer or the U.S. Department of Labor. For the phone number of your local wage and hour division office, call the labor department's toll-free referral line at (866) 487-9243.

Best benefits: Do you want to work for a company that offers you real financial security? If so, the Principal Financial Group, a global financial institution based in Des Moines, had you in mind when it recently held a national search for the 10 best companies that provide for their employees' financial futures--and achieve business goals at the same time.

And the firms that offer the best retirement plans, medical coverage and other insurance are: Advanced Financial Solutions, Oklahoma City; Applied Technology and Management Inc., Gainesville, Fla.; Calence Inc., Tempe, Ariz.; ECS Inc., Davenport, Iowa; and FGM Inc., Dulles, Va.

Also: MARC USA Inc., Pittsburgh; Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co., Spokane, Wash.; Nordic Construction, Waipahu, Hawaii; PRE Holding Inc., Midlothian, Va.; and Tiller Corp., Maple Grove, Minn.