A recent survey has found that budgets for employee compensation in 2026 are projected to be about on par with where they were this year—and ongoing economic uncertainty could be keeping compensation investments flat.

Mercer’s U.S. Compensation Planning survey found that employers plan to boost their compensation budgets by 3.1% for merit increases and 3.5% for total salary increases for non-unionized employees. That’s consistent with 2025, as employers have delivered actual merit and total salary increases of 3.2% and 3.5%, respectively. READ MORE