Abstract

BILLIKOPF, G. E. 1985. Many factors influence employee compensation. Am. Nurseryman 1 62(6):73-79.

Dealing with the how, when, and how-much of pay increases is a thorny problem for most businessmen. In this survey of pay raises, three major kinds of increases—cost-of-living, step, and promotion, are discussed. Cost-of-living increases have two purposes—they protect workers’ buying power against inflation, and they maintain wages that allow nurserymen to obtain qualified labor and yet be competitive. To the worker, of course, maintaining buying power is very important. Inflation can have especially devastating effects on a worker’s ability to make ends meet. A pay raise, or step increase, involves upgrading a worker’s pay while he maintains the same job. Several hourly wage workers pruning side-by-side might receive different levels of pay. Unlike cost-of-living increases, these increases are intended to upgrade employees’ buying power, rather than just maintain it. Three issues of interest to the nurseryman regarding promotion are the increase in pay when giving a promotion, overlap problems and promotion, and how much supervisors should make compared to the workers who report to them. Promotions that involve a “make it or you’re out” policy usually involve larger pay increases than those where the worker can return to a previous job. Any time there is an overlap between jobs it means that some workers in a lower grade might be making more than some workers in the adjacent higher grade. If promoted workers were given raises regardless of where they stood in the range of their previous pay grade, internal equity would be eliminated. If a supervisor can perform the same job as his workers, he should probably get paid more than the best-paid worker. Otherwise, nurserymen may have problems recruiting workers to supervisory ranks.

• © 1986, International Society of Arboriculture. All rights reserved.