Comp and Coffee The business impact of confident pay
22 snips
Feb 24, 2026 
Lauren Hein, Head of Total Rewards at Payscale, talks manager enablement and aligning rewards to retention. Brittni Beers-Branco, VP of People, covers compensation operations and scaling HR maturity. Amy Stewart, Manager of Research and Insights, shares data from the Compensation Best Practices Report. They discuss pay confidence, its links to hiring and turnover, AI risks in comp, and making compensation a strategic business investment.
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2026 Shows Conservative Pay With Rising Peanut Butter Increases
- 2026 shows conservative pay management: only 75% of orgs plan any pay increases and median increase sits at 3.5%.
- Peanut butter increases are rising: ~44% are using or considering equal-percent increases, reshaping merit practices.
Anchor Decisions To Your Compensation Philosophy
- Anchor compensation decisions to your stated strategy and comp philosophy when budgets are tight.
- Decide whether to protect high performers or take a blanket approach by mapping limited budget to retention risk and talent priorities.
Communicate Strategy And Equip Managers
- Communicate your compensation strategy and equip managers with talk tracks to maintain transparency and trust during constrained pay cycles.
- Use total rewards and development opportunities as levers alongside pay to retain talent.