\n<\/p>\n
Looking forward to a raise in 2026? You may be getting \u201cpeanut butter\u201d.<\/p>\n
A new report from compensation software and data provider Payscale predicts that in 2026, many employers will be giving \u201cpeanut butter raises\u201d to their employees \u2013 increases given \u201cacross the board\u201d as opposed to being calculated individually based on performance or merit. They\u2019re spread evenly, like peanut butter on a slice of bread.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn total, more than 40% of organizations are either using or actively considering standardized across-the-board or peanut butter pay increases in 2026,\u201d the report said. \u201cThis increases to 56% for top performers (organizations who reported that they would exceed their revenue goals in 2025).\u201d<\/p>\n
Most employers, the survey says, plan to give an average of 3.5% raises in 2026, which Payscale says is similar to last year (although based on the millions of employees in its system, payroll company ADP said that employers actually gave anywhere from 4.4% to 6.5% salary increases last year, depending on whether they left or stayed at their jobs). Regardless, inflation is about 3%, so raises are keeping up, if not staying ahead.<\/p>\n
But please, if you\u2019re a business owner or manager and you\u2019re considering a peanut butter approach to your pay increases this year \u2013 and you\u2019re blaming inflation \u2013 please, don\u2019t. Your higher-performing employees deserve better than this. And your lower performers should be put on notice. I have nothing against peanut butter. Or jelly. But this practice is simply lazy. And \u2013 let\u2019s face it \u2013 you\u2019re probably doing the same with your performance reviews. We suck at performance reviews.<\/p>\n
We don\u2019t document. We don\u2019t reward. We don\u2019t mentor. We don\u2019t coach. We\u2019re too busy chasing profits. Instead, most of us are still going through the motions of the outdated annual review. Many of my clients are way behind in the process.<\/p>\n
The workplace has changed dramatically over just the past decade. Millennials and gen Z workers now represent more than half of today\u2019s workforce. Younger workers grew up receiving real-time comments on their social media posts and received Little League trophies just for participating. They want immediate gratification when they do something good. And they deserve honest feedback when they don\u2019t. Yet most employers still behave as we did 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re one of those organizations that are considering a peanut butter raise for your employees, rethink this practice<\/p>\n
A 2015 study from the Society for Human Resource Management found that more than two-thirds of employees were dissatisfied with performance reviews, with 65% saying the exercise wasn\u2019t even relevant to their jobs. Managers also overwhelmingly said that their company\u2019s performance review process was not satisfactory.<\/p>\n
A 2025 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends survey of more than 10,000 employees found fewer than one in three workers thought their performance reviews were \u201cvery fair and equitable\u201d, and a majority of employees and managers lacked trust in performance management. A June 2025 report described broad misalignment between employees and leaders on performance, with many employees feeling their reviews were unfair, stressful or just a checkbox exercise, and only about 29% of workers trusted their evaluation outcomes.<\/p>\n
Which is why it doesn\u2019t surprise me that so many businesses are opting for \u201cpeanut butter raises\u201d this year. It\u2019s the easy way out. Why spend the time to individually evaluate your people when you can just slap an across-the-board increase on everyone and just be on your way?<\/p>\n
When a customer pays you, it means they\u2019re satisfied with what you delivered. It\u2019s the same with your employees. Raises are a true benchmark of performance. Employees should not only receive them, but know how their raise compares to the average in their group. If they care, they\u2019ll seek to exceed the average. If they don\u2019t care, and consistently rate below average, then that tells you something else. And if you do let that person go, they (and their attorneys) can\u2019t say they weren\u2019t forewarned.<\/p>\n
The right way to do this is to set specific goals and give raises twice a year if those goals are met, along with incentive bonuses at the end of the year, depending on how well a worker performed. The bonus doesn\u2019t need to be cash either. Today\u2019s worker loves flexibility, so additional paid time off works well. If you can\u2019t afford either, consider a smaller pay increase coupled with a new title. Titles are important too.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re one of those organizations that are considering a peanut butter raise for your employees, rethink this practice. Ever seen the famous scene in Mad Men? Where Don Draper tells his employee Peggy Olson, who complained that he never said thank you, that \u201cThat\u2019s what the money is for!\u201d<\/p>\n
He isn\u2019t wrong. Raises matter. But so does regular feedback. Don\u2019t be lazy about either.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Looking forward to a raise in 2026? You may be getting \u201cpeanut butter\u201d. A new report from compensation software and data provider Payscale predicts that in 2026, many employers will be giving \u201cpeanut butter raises\u201d to their employees \u2013 increases given \u201cacross the board\u201d as opposed to being calculated individually based on performance or merit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[22712,13257,1406,1407,2230,10080,1319,4804,3971,1438],"class_list":{"0":"post-43417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-butter","9":"tag-employers","10":"tag-gene","11":"tag-marks","12":"tag-paying","13":"tag-peanut","14":"tag-price","15":"tag-raises","16":"tag-spreading","17":"tag-workers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}