"Professionals have long been taught a simple formula for career success: work hard, outperform your peers, and bigger paychecks will follow. But this year, employers are planning to reward their star staffers differently; instead of factoring in merit, more companies are considering general pay hikes spread out evenly, dubbed the "peanut butter raises" trend. Around 44% of employers plan to roll out uniform, across-the-board wage bumps in 2026, according to a new Payscale report."
"About 16% of organizations are newly implementing these "peanut butter" raises, 9% say they already employ the pay strategy, and another 18% of organizations are considering it this year. And top-performing companies are all-in on the approach: around 56% of organizations that reported that they would exceed their revenue goals in 2025 are using or actively considering peanut butter pay increases."
""Tying merit pay increases to performance ratings has come under criticism in recent years for being too subjective and prone to bias," the Payscale report noted. "At the same time, some organizations have made headlines by electing to standardize pay increases to alleviate administrative burden and reward workers equally, especially for low wage workers where inflation is a big concern.""
Around 44% of employers plan uniform, across-the-board wage bumps in 2026. About 16% are newly implementing peanut butter raises, 9% already employ the approach, and 18% are considering it. Companies projecting to exceed 2025 revenue goals show about 56% adoption or consideration of this method. Average pay increases are planned at 3.5%, matching last year. Forty-eight percent of businesses will still award raises based on performance. Merit-based pay faces criticism for subjectivity and bias. Standardized raises aim to reduce administrative burden and help low-wage workers amid inflation and tight budgets.
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