CU Salaries Continue To Rise, But Not As Quickly

Credit union employee wage growth has slowed and is expected to continue on its downward trend, according to the CUNA E-Scan 2003 Complete CU Staff Salary Survey. But the survey also noted that although salary increases are down at credit unions, they're still higher then the averages among corporations nationwide.

CUNA said its data shows that the average salary increase of credit union management employees was 4.31% in 2002, down from an average increase of 4.83% in 2001 and 4.86% in 2000. Furthermore, CUNA found the average salary increase for credit union non-management employees in 2002 was 4.04%, down from 4.36% in 2001 and 4.40% in 2000.

"This downward trend is expected to continue in the next couple of years for both credit union management and nonmanagement employees," says Chad Thiele, senior research analyst and compensation survey project director for CUNA. He noted that on average, credit unions have budgeted a 4.12% increase for management employees and a 3.88% increase for nonmanagement employees in 2003.

"Furthermore, credit unions project increases of only 3.83% and 3.66% in 2004 for credit union management and nonmanagement employees, respectively," Thiele says.

These findings are similar to those of the CUES Executive Compensation survey, which also found that while wage raises were trending downward, CUs' increases were higher than those in other industries.

"Even though increases are down from previous years, credit union increases were still higher than in other industries," noted CUES' George Hoffheimer "It could be that credit unions actually benefit from this specific economic environment. For example, they have more money on hand to lend, and that's what credit unions were established to do."

The E-Scan's 2003 Complete CU Staff Salary Survey also includes more than 80 credit union job descriptions, salary adjustment worksheets, and bank salary comparisons to help credit union professionals develop a successful compensation program.

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