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OSHA Standards for the Construction Industry as of August 2009 
This book contains the occupational safety and health standards for the construction industry promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), effective July 1, 2009.
While companies remain focused on managing their human capital investment in the current economy, pay across jobs is becoming less consistent. Median total cash compensation (base salary and annual incentive) has increased year-over-year among some jobs and decreased for others, according to Mercer's Market Pulse Report.
Positions in manufacturing, information technology and engineering show increases up to 2.0 percent compared to positions in marketing, finance and sales showing declines in pay. A similar variation in pay occurs among employee groups. For example, median total cash compensation for professionals has increased by almost 2.0 percent while it has decreased by nearly 5.0 percent for executives.
Mercer's Market Pulse Report, which provides early indicators of market movement within the 2009 U.S. Mercer Benchmark Database, is based on data from more that 640 organizations from a wide range of industries.
On the whole, median total cash compensation increases year-over-year are just about half that of base salary increases (1.2 percent vs. 2.2 percent, respectively) across all jobs, industries and geographies.
Having trimmed workforces and decreased hours with a corresponding reduction in pay, many companies continue to struggle with cost-containment challenges and are budgeting pay levels accordingly. For those employees (67 percent) receiving a base pay increase, salary budgets for 2009 are projected to be 3.2 percent on average for employees overall.
While fewer executives (56 percent) are expected to receive base bay increases—compared to more than 70 percent of office/clerical/technician and trades/production/service employees—these increases will be slightly higher. For those who receive increases, executives are expected to receive base pay adjusted up 3.5 percent in 2009 compared to increases of 3.1 percent for the employee categories of office/clerical/technician and trades/production/service.
These early findings from Mercer's 2009/2010 U.S. Compensation Planning Survey include responses from approximately 850 organizations across the U.S. as of April, 2009.
According to Mercer's survey, slightly more than two-thirds (67 percent) of organizations are planning to grant pay increases to all employees in 2009 and 88 percent are projecting to do so in 2010.
Executives will fair the worst in terms of salary freezes. Survey findings show 44 percent of organizations are planning to freeze salaries for executives in 2009 and 15 percent the following year, compared to 28 percent and 11 percent, respectively, for office/production/service staff.
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