🎉 It's PAY DAY 💰

PLUS: Virtual reality training

Read time: 2.5 minutes

Good Morning Party People! 🎉

We’ve got a Great Gatsby sized party today! A party that makes Project X look weak.

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Here’s what’s on the party plan:

📈 Most employers support a federal minimum wage increase

🤑 US companies plan on salary budget increases

👓 Using VR to learn office skills?

⛽ Common Buc-ee’s W

And, of course, MEMES!

MOTD (Meme of The Day)

Meme creds: Alaina Shapiro

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Minimum Wage Increase?!

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. And wages have not kept up with productivity and inflation.

Nearly three-quarters of U.S. organizations believe that the federal minimum wage should be increased.

“According to Payscale’s Compensation Best Practices Report, 72 percent of organizations agree that the federal minimum wage should be raised. Participants in the Compensation Best Practices Report are HR leaders and compensation professionals who are responsible for managing pay strategies and pay increases for employees and represent organizations large and small”

There is concern that raising the federal minimum wage would harm small businesses. However, the report found that smaller organizations (those with 100 employees or fewer) were more in favor than large organizations (those with more than 50,000 employees).

Additionally, 71% of organizations stated that their comp strategy is NOT significantly affected by minimum wage increases.

Companies Are Planning on Upping The Pay

In 2024, pay increases are expected to be 3.8% on average in the US. 78% of organizations say that their salary increase budget is the same or higher compared to last year.

“In the United States, planned pay increases for 2024 are 3.8% for exempt employees (salaried, non-management), 3.9% for non-exempt employees (hourly), 3.8% for managers (salaried), and 3.7% for executives”

In 2023, actual pay raises outpaced the predicted 3.8%. As layoffs have slowed over recent months, it’s worth continuing to monitor payroll budgets and trends.

Read the Salary Budget Survey here.

Party Snacks (Weekly Resources)

MyHR - The latest guidance, tips and insights from leading HR experts.

JazzHR - 6 Free Resources for New HR Professionals.

Still Hiring - “Who the friggin’ frig is hiring rn!?” Still hiring is a resource with nearly 1,300 companies that are actively hiring.

VR For Training?

VR is all the rage. Apple recently announced its ultra-affordable $3,499 virtual reality headset, and now companies are looking to jump on the trend to train new employees.

College classes and internship programs are also utilizing VR headsets to teach young professionals what it’s really like to work in an office environment.

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By giving students access to this VR, you can place them in these different environments where they can see, ‘Oh, this is what it would be like to be in a client meeting.’ Or, ‘This is what it means to be doing marketing

Given that the average college student probably doesn’t understand what an office is really like (they’re actually partyin’ not just Office Partyin’), this could be an effective way to properly onboard young professionals into the workforce.

Actually a pretty cool idea. Hopefully, the companies are paying for the headsets (they’re not cheap).

Read more here.

Common Buc-ee’s W

Buc-ee’s, the Texas-sized gas station and convenience store’s HR department was worried about turnover and losing quality employees. So now, the company is making sure its employees are getting PAID.

Turnover usually plagues the convenience store industry. In 2021, turnover was reported to be 150%.

Now, Cashiers at the company make $18 an hour, and General Managers can make up to $225,000. For reference, Texas’ minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.

“We have to look at a business plan that serves the customer but also provides an environment where employees are going to want to stay and will encourage career development”

It’s yet to be determined to see how the pay increases impact turnover for Buc-ee’s. But it’s certainly generating some buzz.

Party Favors (extra reading)

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Here’s the latest from our AI meme machine, PartAI…

Again, a little creepy lol