The special question in the 4th quarter dealt with whether employees have already profited financially from the rapid recovery of the German economy or will profit from it in future.
Nearly 22% of the surveyed companies reported that their employees have already received special payments based on the positive business developments. However, for 64% of the survey participants this has not been the case. The remaining ca. 14% supplied no information. Staff of companies between 250 and 499 employees were the most likely to receive voluntary special payments (30%).
For the coming months ca. 35% of the surveyed companies intend to make special payments to their employees. Almost 54% of the enterprises do not plan any such voluntary special compensation. A further 12% of the survey participants were not able or did not want to comment on this question.
An interesting finding was that for companies in manufacturing (39%) the willingness to make special payments in the near future is noticeably higher than in the category “services excluding distribution” (31%). An evaluation according to company size also shows differences in attitudes towards voluntary special payments. The survey results revealed that companies with 500 and more employees (22%) plan to show more caution regarding special payments in the coming months than small and medium-sized companies. With regard to the question on special payments already made (see above), the share of large companies that allowed their staff to participate in the economic recovery was also below the average of all surveyed businesses.
With regard to the next round of wage negotiations, only 3% of the surveyed companies expect a “clear” increase in wages. Almost 37% anticipate that the increases will be “moderate”. A further 31% of the survey participants expect a “slight” increase in wages. About one quarter of the enterprises is of the opinion that the next round of wage negotiations will lead to no appreciable wage increases. The remaining 5% the surveyed companies provided no appraisal regarding wage increases.
Especially companies with up to 49 employees do not believe that the coming round of wage negotiations will lead to increases in employee remuneration (32%). Firms of between 250 and 499 employees as well as those with 500 and more, however, expect mostly “moderate” increases (53% and 56% respectively). One in ten large companies expects “clear” wage hikes. Summing up, the results of the survey indicate that companies with 500 and more employees are less likely to give their staff special payments in the wake of the positive business developments. However, they more frequently expect pay hikes from the coming wage negotiation rounds.
The comments of the survey participants indicate that many companies have not yet fully recovered from the economic crisis. In many industry sectors at best a moderate recovery is evident but not a genuine upswing. Business activity in many cases is still clearly below the pre-crisis level. In the opinion of these companies, there is currently neither the financial possibility nor the necessity to grant bonuses to staff.
Ifo Personnel Manager Survey Introduction and archive
Industrial Organisation and New Technologies
Phone: +49(0)89/9224-1343 Fax: +49(0)89/907795-1343
RSS