Dive Brief:

• Chipotle's hourly workers have a chance to earn up to an extra week's pay per quarter via a new performance-based bonus program, the company announced. Teams at the chain's restaurants who meet predetermined sales, in addition to cashflow and throughput goals, could be eligible for what adds up to an extra month's pay over the course of a year, the company said.
• More than 2,600 employees across 135 restaurants qualify for the bonus, which is based on an individual worker's average weekly pay per quarter, Chipotle said. Workers must be employed for the full quarter in order to be eligible to receive the bonus. The company said in a statement that it is committed to talent retention and that it reported seeing a decrease in turnover at both the manager and crew levels within the past year.
• "We are strategically investing in our people by giving all employees the opportunity to earn a performance bonus and it's paying off," Marissa Andrada, Chipotle's chief people officer, said in the statement. "It's exciting to see how many locations qualified and the high level of engagement from our restaurant teams."

Dive Insight:

U.S. companies are holding steady on pay increases while turning to bonuses and other variable forms of pay to attract and retain talent, according to recent reports by Willis Towers Watson and insurance broker Gallagher. HR leaders might expect an employee-driven market to force employers to raise wages, but many employers have so far elected to offer their workers performance-based variable pay instead.

Workers might have expected significant wage increases in 2019, but the actual figures show a different story. PayScale's Q2 2019 PayScale Index found there hasn't been vigorous wage growth in 2019, but instead just a slight uptick of 0.3%. In fact, PayScale said that when factoring in inflation, workers experienced a 0.8% loss in wages. Companies may be investing in other areas, including employee benefits, rather than wage increases.

In order to curb turnover, attract applicants and improve engagement among current workers, employers may find increased pay transparency a viable means of driving retention. A recent Mercer study concluded that a lack of pay transparency may be a risk for higher turnover. The proliferation of online tools means job hunters might expect to know upfront what a position pays, and they may pass on employers that don't reveal wage information from the get-go.