As economy improves, will paychecks keep pace?

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By Livia Gershon Special To The Worcester Business Journal

Over the last few months, pundits have grown increasingly optimistic about economic growth across the United States as job numbers have come in relatively strong. But Jane Fontaine, vice president of human resources at Marlborough-based Digital Federal Credit Union, has a more direct reason to be hopeful.

"The economy has picked up, and you can see that with the number of applicants that you do get now versus what you used to," she said.

In November, Fontaine said, a DCU job fair drew about 60 potential applicants. "In the past, you would have 100 or 150," she said. "It seems like a lot of organizations are hiring right now."

But if employees expect the higher demand for labor to translate into rising wages and higher benefits — the better to recruit and retain talented workers — they probably won't be satisfied, at least not yet. Nationally, wages have not grown much in recent years even as the labor market has tightened. And several Central Massachusetts HR professionals said they're not seeing big changes in market rates when it comes to compensation.

At DCU, Fontaine said the only department where there's strong pressure on salaries is IT, but that's nothing new.

"There's limited talent, so you sometimes have to really stretch what you're paying someone," she said.

Fontaine said the conversation at DCU's HR department is less about the labor market than the mix of ages among the staff. The credit union offers a strong package of traditional benefits such as a 401(k) match, she said, but that's not the sort of thing the youngest workers care much about. So the company also puts thought and money into such things as a gym and game room, cash bonuses and raffles for sports tickets.

At Saint-Gobain Abrasives North America in Worcester, Human Resources Director Kip Paterson said standard salaries will rise from 2 to 4 percent for professional and managerial employees and 2 to 3 percent for rank-and-file workers this year.

Paterson said that, aside from one year early in the Great Recession, pay increases have held fairly steady for many years, and he doesn't expect that to change until there are firmer signs of economic growth.

Filling jobs? Not a problem

At Reliant Medical Group, Elizabeth Rodriguez, manager of talent acquisition and management, said the Worcester-based health system posted more than 175 positions in 2014 but didn't have much trouble filling them.

"Our brand name is out there," she said.

Rodriguez said it also helps that there are schools nearby graduating new nurses and other medical professionals. Reliant makes sure its benefits and salaries are competitive, she said, and for the past few years that's meant a 1 to 2 percent annual increase in starting salaries and a typical annual raise of around 3 percent for existing employees.

But if Central Massachusetts employees can't expect a sudden surge in pay and benefits, Nancy Dube, who runs West Boylston HR consultancy Dube Consulting, said they've got one advantage over workers elsewhere. She said many businesses in other states are struggling with new insurance costs related to the Affordable Care Act that make it difficult for them to offer higher salaries and benefits. Since Massachusetts businesses have already adjusted to the state's universal health care law, they're feeling less serious effects, Dube said.

Meanwhile, at Westborough-based eClinicalWorks, CEO Girish Navani said there's been no big change in compensation this year because good performers were already getting raises of 8 percent a year, a level that would be shocking in many industries. Navani said the company didn't hit the speed bump many others did around 2009. He said it also never felt the need to curb compensation growth. Unlike public companies, he said, eClinicalWorks doesn't face shareholder pressure to squeeze out as much quarterly profit as possible.

With the Massachusetts technology sector growing, Navani said he anticipates increasing competition for talented employees, but he doesn't mind. "I think if you're an entrepreneur and you're threatened by competition, you shouldn't be an entrepreneur," he said.

Besides, Navani added, more demand for tech professionals will mean more new graduates staying in the state and more talented people moving here. "The boats go higher," he said.

If the tide is rising quickly in the technology sector, though, workers in other parts of the economy may need to wait a bit longer to really feel a change.