What survey revealed about annual pay raises, W-4s, other Payroll topics

Most employers give out annual pay raises, according to a new survey. However, the increase isn’t enough to keep up with inflation.

The survey, Getting Paid in America, is released each year by PayrollOrg (formerly the American Payroll Association).

In this year’s survey, 68.70% of the respondents answered yes, when asked if they receive annual wage increases. Meanwhile, 20.64% answered no. A handful of participants, 10.66%, didn’t know.

As for whether that raise would keep pace with the rising rate of inflation, 78.72% of those surveyed said it wouldn’t, with 21.28% answering in the affirmative.

More employees than not (47.72% vs. 43.02%) had completed a new Form W-4 before the 2023 tax year began. However, 9.26% didn’t know if they filled out a new withholding form.

Regardless, employees have confidence that their withholding and the net amount of their paychecks are correct each payday.

More than half (52.65%) are very certain about that, and 32.78% are somewhat certain. Only 7.82% are not very certain, while 4.02% are not certain at all. The remaining 2.73% said they don’t know.

What happens on payday

The percent of employees being paid by direct deposit has continued to rise. In 2023, the number is 95.15%, compared with 93.26% last year.

Paper checks remains in the runner-up position, with 2.85% currently being paid that way, down from 3.62% in 2022. No other options broke the 1% barrier this year or last, whether it’s:

• a payroll card
• an online payment system like PayPal or Venmo, or
• a prepaid reloadable card.

No matter what the method, Payroll continues to deliver on-time wages to employees, the PayrollOrg survey made clear. In fact, 91.01% of those surveyed attested to the timely paychecks. That’s up from 90.69% in 2022.

Pay and benefits

Employees prefer higher wages to better health benefits. That sentiment is growing – 73% chose the wages as opposed to the benefits in 2023, up from 65.10% last year.

Finally, if employees have questions, most of them – 87.31% – can access their pay and benefits information online.