From 2010 through February 2011, median increase in salary paid for all positions in the Washington, DC area was unchanged, according to the 2011 Compensation Survey Report just released by The Human Resource Association of the National Capital Area (HRA-NCA), the local chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management.

Over 300 Washington, DC area employers participated in the survey and provided compensation data for 513 jobs. These organizations employ 318,570 employees and reported salary and compensation data on 76,550 incumbents on every major industry in the Washington region.

Survey respondents reported they are budgeting approximately 2.8% increases for the year for all positions. (This is down from payroll budget increases in 3.2% in 2010.)

Employee Total Turnover was reported at 16% in the DC region, and voluntary turnover was 13%. This is approximately the same as reported in 2010.

When reviewing the data by job type on an incumbent-weighted basis, the largest increases were reported in Banking (7.5%), Human Resource (7.5%), Customer Service (7.1%) and Legal (4.9%) jobs.

The survey asked employers to report on pay differential for employees holding security clearances. 48% of government contractors reported that "cleared" personnel receive greater compensation than employees in comparable positions without a clearance. Employers indicated that employees with clearances received on average 5-15% more in base pay than those without a clearance.

The pay differential between government contractor employees and people with comparable government jobs is that on average contractors earn 7.3% greater compensation. This is skewed somewhat because the differential for executive positions is 69% higher for executives working for government contractors.

Federal government pay was also flat from 2010-2011.