How Do We Know What to Pay Our Employees?

A salary is simply a form of monetary payment from an employer to a person, who is an employee. It is compared with piece salary, where every job, hour or set of work is paid at once, and not on a monthly basis. Salary in today’s business world can be compared to cash or wages in days gone by. Today, you can easily find salary packages that would suit and fit your needs for any position, be it permanent or temporary. Even for a part-time employee; there are some decent salary packages that one can avail of.

In order to know if your employer is paying you a decent wage, you should take a look at the last year’s wages that were given to other employees. If there are any raises in salaries or benefits, then it might just be because the recession hit the economy badly and the company’s sales were down. When an employer increases the wages of an employee; this happens because he wants to retain that employee for a long term. Therefore, it becomes imperative for the employer to know what is the rate of salary that his employee is getting, so that he will be able to hire the best available candidate for the job.

Before going into the issue of salaries, it is important to know what the minimum wages are in the state you live in. Most states have a set minimum wage level that every employee must receive. Some employers also follow the policy of not paying the employees, who have been employed for a period of one year but has not received a wage for this period. In this case, the employee is said to be ‘not eligible for minimum wages’ and is thus entitled to a certain amount of back pay.

The minimum wages vary from one state to another. A number of people often get confused when they try to go about getting the information they need. However, there are online calculators, which can help them understand the concept of minimum wages. Some examples of these online calculators are the USDA wage calculator or the Bureau of Labor Statistics web page. Both of these sites provide information on the minimum wages for various states.

Most companies give their employees a fixed salary which is not influenced by the market conditions. They may choose to increase the salary of their employee depending upon their performance. Many employers also prefer to set a minimum salary for the employees so that they do not end up getting a bargain. However, most employees prefer to have a say in the decisions regarding their remuneration. Thus, many employees feel cheated when they are told by their supervisors that they are not being offered any options as far as their remuneration is concerned.

After deciding the salary to pay, the employer should also take into account whether the same should be paid in addition to other benefits such as medical, dental, life insurance, etc. Most employees prefer to have a part-time job and thus they receive a deduction in the amount of salary that is paid. This makes them feel that they are being compensated for something that they are not doing. Thus, the remuneration paid should be equal to the worth of work done and not for the reason of being counted as bonus. If an employee feels that he has been unfairly compensated, he can approach the labor authorities.