Time to update your EEOC “Know Your Rights” poster: The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) went into effect on June 27, 2023. The PWFA requires employers to post a notice describing the various protections under the new law. Employers should remove their old EEOC “Know Your Rights” poster and replace them with the updated version found here. You can also order the poster from ASE’s partner, GovDocs.  Login to ASE website to get the member link.

America is getting older:  The nation’s median age increased by 0.2 years to 38.9 years between 2021 and 2022, according to Vintage 2022 Population Estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau. “As the nation’s median age creeps closer to 40, you can really see how the aging of baby boomers, and now their children — sometimes called echo boomers — is impacting the median age. The eldest of the echo boomers have started to reach or exceed the nation’s median age of 38.9,” said Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Census Bureau’s Population Division. "While natural change nationally has been positive, as there have been more births than deaths, birth rates have gradually declined over the past two decades. Without a rapidly growing young population, the U.S. median age will likely continue its slow but steady rise.”   A third (17) of the states in the country had a median age above 40.0 in 2022, led by Maine with the highest at 44.8, and New Hampshire at 43.3.  Utah (31.9), the District of Columbia (34.8), and Texas (35.5) had the lowest median ages in the nation. Hawaii had the largest increase in median age among states, up 0.4 years to 40.7.  Source:  U.S. Census 6/22/23

Why do employees leave? Work-life balance:  Poor work-life balance is the top reason workers say they resign, according to the June 2 results of a FlexJobs survey.  42% of professionals responding to the survey said they were actively thinking about quitting their job; another 20% said they had recently quit. After poor work-life balance, workers most commonly said they were driven to job hunt by low or unfair pay; a toxic culture; and a feeling that they were disrespected or undervalued.  The results stand in contrast to last year’s results where toxic culture took the top spot.  Source: HR Dive 9/6/23

Workers believe career is better impacted in the office: 56% of workers believe in-person employees will be afforded better career opportunities than their remote or hybrid peers, the highest percentage in nearly two years of surveying by CNBC and SurveyMonkey.  Male workers are more likely to hold this view than women and non-binary people, and white workers believe this at higher rates than other racial and ethnic groups. In October 2021, only 47% percent of workers believed that in-person employees would have better career outcomes. Women and gender-nonconforming or unlisted individuals were less likely than their male counterparts to believe remote work has an impact on career advancement. Level of belief varied by race as well, with a higher percentage of white people believing in-person workers would have better outcomes than their remote peers.  Source:  CNBC 6/8/23

U.S. wage growth to come back to 2019 level of 3.1%: Wage growth in U.S. job postings has been softening for more than a year now, and at the current rate it could return to pre-pandemic levels by early 2024, according to Indeed Hiring Lab.  Advertised wages rose 5.3% in May from a year earlier, a marked decline from the peak of 9.3% in January 2022, according to Indeed’s wage tracker. The slowdown has been broad-based across industries, but it’s been particularly pronounced in low-wage sectors — for the type of positions that saw the biggest gains as the economy recovered from the pandemic. At its current rate of deceleration, wage growth would return to its 2019 average of 3.1% late this year or early in 2024, according to Indeed.  IT growth has greatly slowed as the number of IT jobs have reduced to half of what it was in November 2022.  Source:  Bloomberg 6/7/23

Compensation practices 2023:  According to WorldatWork’s 2023 “Compensation Structure Policies & Practices” study, there has been a significant decline in the number of organizations operating without compensation structures, decreasing from 17% in 2019 to a mere 9% this year. In contrast, the utilization of a single salary structure has witnessed a substantial increase, rising by 13% since 2019, becoming the most prevalent choice. While 54% of organizations reported having multiple compensation structures, this represents a slight decrease from the previous survey's 59%. After grappling with talent retention challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, companies still continue to react and adapt. More than a third (36%) of survey respondents reported that they had modified their compensation structures due to significant changes in market rates. Among those that did make changes, methods varied. The largest segment of those who made changes (80%) shifted to a different compensation structure than previously used due to market rate increases.  The most predominant type of compensation structure continues to be Market Based, accounting for 65% of respondents, up from 55% in 2019. Fifty-four percent of respondents have more than one compensation structure in their organization, with 32% of participants citing the use of two to four structures.  Source:  CCH 6/12/23