Now that 2025 compensation cycles are complete, we analyzed data across hundreds of Pave's clients to assess the effectiveness of this year’s merit cycle season.

Although merit budgets shrank from 2024 to 2025, compensation professionals still found ways to deliver merit cycles on time and on budget, while maintaining strong pay-for-performance outcomes.

Key takeaways

Download Pave’s 2025 Merit Cycle State of the Union report to discover:

• The percentage of eligible employees who received a raise during Q1 2025 merit cycles

• The median salary increase for promoted vs. non-promoted employees

• The size of base salary and equity increases for employees by performance level

• Compa ratios for employees before and after the completion of merit cycles