The shadow cast by COVID-19 on corporate America may not be as dark as anticipated, according to Salary.com's 2020 Pay Practices and Compensation Survey*, conducted in August-September of 2020. While 64 percent of organizations have taken more than two employment actions due to the pandemic, the most prevalent by far was asking employees to work from home, reported by 92 percent of organizations. This action was followed by layoffs (30 percent) and furloughs (27 percent), with reduced hours and salary freezes both reported by 22 percent of organizations. Almost three-quarters of organizations experienced layoffs, furloughs, and/or facility closures.  

Salary freezes have been prevalent, with 61 percent of survey participants reporting that 100 percent of their employees experienced a salary freeze. Salary reductions were much less prevalent. Less than half (47 percent) of organizations reporting that a quarter, or less, of their employees experienced salary reductions. 

Despite this sobering range of employee actions, efforts to minimize the impact on headcount appear to have helped mitigate operational disruptions: only 13 percent of organizations reported their current level of turnover has led to missed production and delivery timelines.

Conducted by Salary.com, the leading SaaS provider of cloud-based compensation market data, surveys and analytics, the survey had 1,300 participants, representing 21 industries and multiple ownership types and sizes. 

"While the pandemic's unprecedented impact on corporate America cannot be denied, this survey demonstrates that the mix of employee actions taken, and no doubt tremendous resiliency among employees, has led to a relatively low level of production delays," said Chris Fusco, Salary.com's Senior Vice President of Compensation. 

*please click here to download the report.

Survey Overview and Methodology 
The 2020 survey compiled responses from 1,395 participants between 8/8/2020 and 9/23/2020. The report represents 21 industries and multiple ownership types including public, private, joint venture, non-profit, and government. Organizations ranged in size from small US-based businesses with fewer than 99 employees to global organizations with greater than 100,000 employees. Responses were prepared by HR Managers and above (61%) and by HR professionals.