Have worker shortages resulted in better pay and benefits?
By Andy Boardman
in UpRiseRI
As Rhode Island continues to contend with the COVID-19 pandemic, how are employers responding?
New data sheds light
on this question, offering insights on Rhode Island business activity amid
COVID-19 – and how it compares nationwide. The information comes from a recently-published survey fielded
in the summer and fall of 2021 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, providing a
nationally-representative snapshot of private-sector practices at that time
toward pay raises, remote work, employee vaccination and more.
Here are three key
things to know.
1. Three in ten Rhode Island employers raised pay or offered bonuses as a result of the pandemic
As employers rush to rehire after the unprecedented layoffs of 2020, many have found it challenging to secure workers. One solution businesses are turning to: Increasing pay. As of last fall, one in six Rhode Island employers had raised base wage rates as a result of the pandemic; four percent had offered signing bonuses. A similar amount had offered hazard pay or bonuses for those working amid COVID-19 at some point during the pandemic. In all, three in ten employers have offered at least one form of pay raises.
Put differently, seven
in ten Rhode Island employers have not raised pay as a result
of the pandemic — even as three in four
business executives in the state say they are suffering from
worker shortages, according to a recent Providence Business News survey of
business executives.
Still, although a
minority of firms have increased compensation, those companies together employ
a majority of Rhode Island workers: The 30% of pay-raising businesses represent
56% of the state’s workforce — suggesting large companies have been more
willing and able to offer better pay.
2. Work-from-home is
still widespread
Just over half of
working Rhode Islanders are employed in establishments where at least some
employees were teleworking in the summer and fall of last year. An almost equal
number – 47% of workers – are in organizations that rarely or never telework.
The prevalence of remote work is similar at the nationwide level.
Of the Rhode Island
employers that increased telework because of COVID-19, two in three expect to
continue offering enhanced remote work options once the pandemic subsides.
3. Employee vaccine mandates
are not the norm
In the summer and fall
of last year, 24% of Rhode Island businesses required employees to obtain
COVID-19 vaccines before coming to work. While vaccine mandates are far from
the norm in Rhode Island workplaces, they are more common in Rhode Island than
nationally – across the country, just 18% of employers had vaccine requirements
at the time of the survey.
Mask requirements were
more common: A majority of businesses in Rhode Island, 63%, mandated employee
mask-wearing, similar to the nationwide average of 58%.
Other notable
datapoints from the survey:
Three percent of Rhode
Island establishments used WorkShare, the state short-term compensation program enabling
employers to cut payroll costs without laying off workers, during the pandemic
Less than two percent
of Rhode Island establishments use self-serve kiosks, like those used to order
and pay for food at a restaurant or self-checkout at a grocery store
One in ten Rhode Island
employers screen job applicants or current employees for drug use. Evidence
from past economic recoveries indicates businesses tend to ease such
requirements as the labor market tightens and hiring becomes
more challenging
