07/19/2025

Employers Project Flat Salary Budgets in 2026

Companies said next year they plan to increase salary budgets by 3.5 percent

Planned salary budgets for 2026 are looking a lot like actual salary budgets this year.

That is according to recent research by British insurance brokerage Willis Towers Watson. Across a survey of 1,557 organizations that are either headquartered or have operations in the U.S., the median salary budget for 2026 is expected to increase by 3.5 percent. Notably, that is the same level of actual salary budget increases in 2025.

As finance chiefs know, budgets can and do often change for any number of reasons, so it’s an open question whether that 3.5 percent increase will even come through in 2026. Consider the fact that, in WTW's same survey at the end of 2024, U.S. participants projected a salary budget increase of 3.9 percent. And that came after an actual budget increase of 4 percent in 2024.

Please select this link to read the complete article from CFO.