WAGEWATCH RELEASES ITS 2012 LODGING INDUSTRY WAGE FORECAST

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) January 9, 2012 -- SCOTTSDALE, AZ, January 9, 2012 - The coming year should prove to be a continuation of the modest growth experienced by the lodging industry across the nation last year. This should be welcome news for many hotel management team members as they receive modest raises in 2012.

The WageWatch annual survey of budgeted pay raises for hotel employees in the coming year shows across the board pay raises for exempt and nonexempt employees averaging 3.0%, with a median of 3.0% and a mode of 3.0%. A total of 3,430 hotels responded to the WageWatch survey, which was completed on January 3, 2012.

If the wage increases are further broken down into full service hotels and limited or select service hotels, similar results were obtained with the 1,116 full service hotels reporting planned increases for exempt and nonexempt positions averaging 3.0% with a median of 3.0%, and a mode of 3.0%. Limited service hotels were slightly less with an average planned increase of 2.9% with a median of 2.9%, although the mode was the same as full service hotels at 3.0%.

Nationally, this will be the first year since the recession of 2008-09 where there will be across the board wage increases for the lodging industry. Similar pay raises were planned for last year but never materialized because of the weaker than expected U.S. economy the first half of 2011. Hotel management companies revised their plans and subsequent wage increases averaged only 1.4% for 2011. This figure was reported last November by WageWatch when it completed its 2011 compensation survey of 4,950 properties in the lodging industry.

The President of WageWatch, Randy Pullen, forecasts that the planned wage increases in 2012 for the lodging industry should occur with the possibility of even higher increases of closer to 3.2% on average if the economy is stronger than forecast. Until then, hotel management companies are being cautious as the New Year begins.

The full report is available at http://goo.gl/S1hdo
ABOUT WAGEWATCH

WageWatch (www.wagewatch.com), the leading Web-based source for compensation and benefits data, provides instantly accessible industry wage, salary and benefits data, delivered to any Internet-enabled device. WageWatch surveys industries and provides companies with the data they need to make their compensation and benefits decisions. For more information on WageWatch, visit www.wagewatch.com or call 888-330-9243.

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