Colorado employers on average plan wage increases of 2 percent next year, with more than a third of employers planning wage freezes in 2010, according to a survey released Thursday.
The Mountain State Employers Council surveyed 635 Colorado and Wyoming employers in August to determine what kind of pay hikes they projected for 2010.
The average increases — assuming they actually occur — would outpace the 1.6 percent rate of consumer inflation the Colorado Legislative Council predicts for the Denver-Boulder-Greeley area next year.
But even 2 percent is not a given. Consider that a year ago employers projected an average wage increase of 3.6 percent for 2009. When surveyed last month, the actual wage increases they expected to give this year were just 2 percent.
“The disparity between what was projected for 2009 in September 2008 and for this year is the largest I’ve seen,” said Patty Goodwin, the council’s director of surveys.
That likely reflects the sharp downturn the economy suffered in September 2008 after the survey was completed.
Employers in the Denver-Boulder area projected average wage increases next year of 2.1 percent, while Fort Collins and northern Colorado employers are looking at 1.7 percent. Colorado Springs-area employers are forecasting 2.3 percent wage hikes.
Resort-area employers, typically among the most generous, are looking at a 1.5 percent hike, much thinner than the 4.2 percent increase a year ago.
With many consumers paying down debt or limited in the new debt they can take on, income growth is a key ingredient to future gains in consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity.
Employers in construction are planning wage increases of only 1.2 percent, the lowest of any industry group, while government employers are looking at average wage increases of 1.4 percent.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com
