{"id":881437,"date":"2026-09-03T03:16:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T03:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/881437\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T03:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T03:16:17","slug":"employers-plan-steady-merit-based-pay-increases-for-2027-despite-uncertainty-survey-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/881437\/","title":{"rendered":"Employers plan steady merit-based pay increases for 2027 despite uncertainty, survey says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Midsection<\/a> The survey said industry salary budgets vary around national averages, with tech leading market increases for merit and total increases, whole retail and wholesale are also above average. (Credit: Vergani Fotografia\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n

Canadian employers<\/a> plan to keep next year’s pay increases<\/a> steady despite geopolitical uncertainty, according to a survey by Mercer Canada<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Mercer, rebranding as Marsh on Sept. 1, said its survey of more than 470 Canadian organizations found that employers, on average, plan to hold base salary increases<\/a> for merit nearly the same as reported in the last two years. <\/p>\n

It said compensation budgets<\/a> for 2027 will be steady and employers are\u00a0taking a measured approach<\/a> that balances the current economic uncertainty with talent priorities while relying on more than the annual merit cycle alone. <\/p>\n

“Right now, economic uncertainty plays a huge role in employers’ compensation strategies, so organizations are planning to make the most of their spending by using data to ensure their spend goes to areas of labour need and where talent risk is high,” Mercer Canada’s senior talent and careers leader, Elizabeth English, said in a press release Aug. 27. <\/p>\n

English said most organizations are still early in the annual planning cycle, and while the current news cycle points to continuing instability, past data shows these projections are likely to be accurate. <\/p>\n

Mercer said its\u00a0data suggests most employers are taking a more intentional approach to compensation, as many employers are still early in the process of turning that strategy into finalized budget decisions. <\/p>\n

As of July 2026, 89 per cent of organizations were still collecting information for 2027 salary budgets, while six per cent had proposed budgets to leadership and five per cent had already secured approval. <\/p>\n

According to Mercer, employers say the economy will continue to influence compensation decisions in 2027, with 60 per cent expecting at least a moderate impact. At the same time, organizations are balancing those pressures with a focus on talent development, market competitiveness and compensation adjustments, it said. <\/p>\n

The survey said industry budgets vary around national averages, with tech leading market increases for merit and total increases, whole retail and wholesale are also above average. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the banking or financial services industry is budgeting the smallest increases so far next year, and consumer goods and energy are also below the national merit average. <\/p>\n

\u2022 Email: dpaglinawan@postmedia.com<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The survey said industry salary budgets vary around national averages, with tech leading market increases for merit and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,7028,46,103731,305793,305794],"class_list":["post-881437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-economy","tag-mercer","tag-mercer-canada","tag-mercer-canadas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}